Three Indicted in Major Hacking Case

By SIOBHAN GORMAN and KATHY SHWIFF
WSJ

WASHINGTON – Three men were indicted Monday on federal charges of conspiring to hack into computer networks of major U.S. retail and financial organizations and stealing data related to more than 130 million credit and debit cards.

Prosecutors called it the largest credit- and debit-card data breach ever charged in the U.S.

Albert Gonzalez, 28 years old, of Miami, and two unnamed co-conspirators were charged with conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and accused of using a sophisticated hacking technique, which tries to find a way around a computer network's firewall to steal credit- and debit-card information.

Among the corporate victims named in the indictment are Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a New Jersey-based card-payment processor; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co., a Maine-based supermarket chain.

A data breach allegedly led by Mr. Gonzalez also siphoned off more than 40 million credit-card numbers from TJX Cos. and others, costing TJX $200 million.

(More here.)