Biggest ID theft in US: 130mn credit cards stolen

New York, Aug 18: In what is believed to be the biggest hacking and identity theft case, three men were charged of stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers, the US authorities revealed on Monday, Aug 17.

Two unnamed Russians were indicted on charges related to five corporate data breaches from 2006 to 2008 along with a former government informant, Albert Gonzalez who is already in jail for involvement in various hacking cases.

The men not only stole the card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven Inc and Hannaford Brothers Co, but also hacked into two unidentified corporate victims.

According to the prosecutors, the accused did their homework and research by going through list of Fortune 500 companies and company websites to learn about their vulnerabilities. The suspects would then, seek to sell data to others who used it to make fraudulent purchases.

OneIndia News