14 DAY TRIAL // Dmitriy Smilianets, a 29-year-old Russian, has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. He is one of the five individuals indicted in July for taking part in a cybercriminal scheme that involved 160 million stolen credit card numbers.
Smilianets’ attorney has told Reuters that they’re determined to fight the charges. They will focus on the possible irregularities related to his arrest in the Netherlands in 2012.
The five men are accused of hacking into the networks of several organizations, including NASDAQ, 7-Eleven, JCP, Diners Singapore, Hannaford, Wet Seal, Commidea, Dexia, JetBlue, Heartland, Dow Jones, Euronet, Carrefour, Visa Jordan, Global Payment, and Ingenicard.
The cybercrooks allegedly stole usernames, passwords, credit and debit card numbers and other sensitive information from the systems of these companies.
In many cases, they leveraged SQL Injection vulnerabilities to gain access to databases storing sensitive info.
In addition to hacking databases, the fraudsters are also said to have installed malware designed to steal data from infected computers.
US authorities say losses of $300 million (€225 million) have been reported by just three of the corporate victims.
Dmitriy Smilianets is accused of selling the information stolen by the other conspirators and distributing the proceeds of the scheme to the participants.
If found guilty, the men could be sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers, five years for unauthorized access to computers, 30 years for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and 30 years for wire fraud.
“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,” US Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey commented when the indictment was made public.
“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.”