Along with others, Drinkman caused losses of at least $300M

Jan 29, 2015 21:55 GMT  ·  By

A Russian hacker who stands accused of breaking into the private networks of major US corporations, Nasdaq stock exchange and Citibank among them, can be extradited to the United States to carry out his sentence, a District Court in Hague has ruled.

Vladimir Drinkman has been in police custody after being arrested in Netherlands in 2012. He faces charges of computer hacking conspiracy in the US along with four other individuals (Aleksandr Kalinin, Roman Kotov, Mikhail Rytikov and Dmitry Smiliantes).

Payment information of more than 170 million cards stolen

A federal indictment in 2013 describes Drinkman as a specialist in gaining unauthorized access to computer networks with the purpose of collecting payment card information and customer account details.

The five men are believed to have stolen over 170 million card numbers from various US retailers, including credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems in 2007, when data of 130 million cards was exposed.

Other entities that suffered losses as a result of the hacking activities (most of them using the SQL Injection method) conducted by the group are 7-Eleven, Carrefour (about two million cards), JCPenney, Hannaford Brothers (about 4.2 million cards), Wet Seal, Commidea (30 million cards), Dexia Bank Belgium, Dow Jones (10,000 log-in credentials), Euronet (two million cards), Visa (800,000 cards) and Global Payment Systems (950,000 cards).

In one of the most notable robberies, the hackers compromised the network of Ingenicard, which operates one of the largest cash exchange platforms in the world. After stealing the card information, the group managed to withdraw more than $9 million / €7.94 million in 24 hours.

First-come, first-served

Since his arrest in the Netherlands, Drinkman’s extradition was requested first by the US, on June 27, 2012, and then by Russia, in mid-2013, both countries invoking similar reasons.

However, apart from the fact that the US was the first to make the request, the judge considered the fact that Russia does not allow its citizens to be extradited, which would result in Drinkman not executing his sentence for the cyber-criminal activities he is accused of in the US, if he reached his native country.

On the other hand, after completing his sentence in the US, Drinkman would be deported to Russia, where he may face the other set of accusations.