Credit Cards

11 charged with hacking, stealing 41 million credit card numbers

The Department of Justice is prosecuted their largest hacking and identity theft case in history, as 11 people have been charged in connection with the hacking of retailers, as well as identity theft.

The 11 suspects have been charged with conspiracy, fraud, identity theft, and computer intrusion.

They managed to hack into nine major retailers including Sports Authority, Forever 21, DSW, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and TJX Cos.

Once they were able to hack into the wireless computer networks of these retailers, they set up software which allowed them to steal credit card numbers, passwords, and other information.

This resulted in them being able to steal 41 million credit and debit card numbers, according to the Department of Justice.

3 out of the 11 faces charges are U.S. citizens, while the others are from China, Belarus, Estonia, and Ukraine.

A U.S. Secret Service informant is among the 11 being charged in the massive case.

They caused losses by banks, retailers, as well as consumers, as Attorney General Michael Mukasey stated that there was no way to compute what the total dollar amount of alleged theft was.

All of the information gathered by their software they set up was placed on two servers.

One server was locted in Ukraine, with the other in Latvia. They had 25 million credit and debit card numbers on one, and 16 million on another.

(Published by dbTechno - august 6, 2008)