14 DAY TRIAL // Five people have been charged in what is said to be the largest known data theft in history, being found to have conspired to steal data from various corporate networks around the world.
Today, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey has unveiled the indictment, charging the five men with conspiracy, wire tapping, and fraud.
As the Department of Justice notes, the five accused are Eastern European men who operated a global scheme that allowed them to hack into the largest financial institutions and corporate networks worldwide to steal 160 million credit cards.
All of them are being charged for stealing financial data for profit from companies such as Nasdaq, 7-Eleven, Carrefour, JCP, Hannaford, Heartland, Wet Seal, Commidea, Dexia, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Euronet, Visa Jordan, Global Payment, Diners Singapore, and Ingenicard.
“This type of crime is the cutting edge. Those who have the expertise and the inclination to break into our computer networks threaten our economic well-being, our privacy, and our national security,” U.S. Attorney Fishman said.
“And this case shows, there is a real practical cost because these types of frauds increase the costs of doing business for every American consumer, every day. We cannot be too vigilant and we cannot be too careful.”
Four of the men are from Russia, namely Vladimir Drinkman, 32, of Syktyykar and Moscow, Roman Kotov, 32, and Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow, and Alexandr Kalinin, 26, of St. Petersburg. The fifth is Mikhail Rytikov, 26, of Odessa, Ukraine.
Vladimir Drinkman and Alexandr Kalinin were reportedly specialized in hacking network security and accessing corporate systems, while Roman Kotov was allegedly focused on mining these networks.
They managed to conduct such activities courtesy of anonymous web-hosting services that Mikhail Rytikov provided to them. Dmitriy Smilianets, on the other hand, was in charge with selling the stolen information.
Court documents unveil that the defendants charged around $10 (€7.5) for each stolen American credit card number and associated data, while asking about $50 (€37.7) for each European credit card number and associated data. Canadian credit card numbers and associated data were sold at $15 (€11) apiece.
“The defendants charged today were allegedly responsible for spearheading a worldwide hacking conspiracy that victimized a wide array of consumers and entities, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman.
Department of Justice officials claim that this is the largest hacking scheme that has been ever prosecuted in the United States. Further details on the case can be found via this link (PDF file).