DOJ Indicted Three On Largest Identity Theft and Computer Crime Case In History

Three individuals, one American and two Russians, were indicted by the Department of Justice on the largest computer crime and identity theft case in history. The three individuals are responsible for hacking into the networks of Heartland Payment Systems--a company that processes transactions for 7-Eleven Inc.; Hannaford Brothers, a regional supermarket chain; and two unnamed national retailers. Over 130 million debit card and credit card numbers were stolen in total in 2007. The hackers did not use the credit cards themselves, instead the numbers were sold online and their buyers used the information to make unauthorized transactions and purchases. The hackers studied lists of fortune 500 companies before deciding on the victim of the attack, and they visited locations of those companies to study which type of payment systems they used. The attack took advantage of flaws in the SQL programming language.