Hannaford Hacker Gets 20 Years in Jail
The hacker responsible for the largest breaches of commercial enterprises, Albert Gonzales, was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison. His resume of crime includes breaches at Heartland, Hannaford, TJMaxx, Office Max and many more.
From the AFP here:
A 28-year-old Florida man who stole millions of credit card numbers in one of the biggest computer hacking operations in US history was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
Albert Gonzalez, of Miami, pleaded guilty in separate cases in September related to hacking into the computer systems of big US retailers.
As part of the plea agreement reached in September, Gonzalez agreed to forfeit one million dollars which he had buried in a container, a condo in Miami, a 2006 BMW 330i, a Tiffany diamond ring and Rolex watches.
He faces sentencing in other cases Friday.
Gonzalez and two unidentified Russian co-conspirators were accused of stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from firms supporting major retail and financial organizations.
More than 250 financial institutions were affected including Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co. Inc., a Maine-based supermarket chain. Other charges were related to hacks into major US retailers including TJX Companies, BJ?s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes and Noble and Sports Authority.
Gonzalez and unnamed co-conspirators broke into retail credit card payment systems using techniques such as “wardriving,” stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from accessible wireless computer networks of retailers.
Prosecutor Stephen Heymann rejected a defense argument that Gonzalez suffered from a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. “The compulsive behavior exhibited by Gonzalez had nothing to do with a mental defect.
So this 20 year sentence is just the beginning of the end of this hacker’s life. He will likely get more jail time today. And its nice to see that the justice system calls bullshit on criminals who claim to be partially retarded.
