(((At least hackers are still pitifully eager to rat out their friends to the Secret Service – the oldest tradition in the trade – but gee whiz, look at the level of global cooperation and the awesome sums of money contingent on being a major-league black-hat cracker these days. That almost beats the oil biz.)))
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/11-charged-in-m.html
Link: Threat Level - Wired Blogs.
(...)
Three U.S. citizens are charged in the case. Three other defendants are from Ukraine, two in China and one each from Belarus and Estonia. (((And they say "globalization is dead," eh? As they say in China, ROTFL-MAO.)))
A final defendant is charged only under his online handle, "Delpiero," and hasn't been tracked down.
In addition to TJ Maxx, the defendants are allegedly responsible for intrusions into BJ’s Wholesale Club, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21, DSW and OfficeMax.
Among others named in the indictments is Maksym Yastremski, a Ukrainian currently in Turkish custody, who is alleged to be "Maksik," well known as a top online seller of stolen credit and debit card information. Yastremski allegedly earned over $11 million selling stolen credit and debit card numbers and magstripe swipes from 2004 - 2006 alone.
Yastremski allegedly worked with Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez of Miami, who served as Maksik's stateside hacker. Gonzalez and two other Miami men allegedly hacked into vulnerable wireless networks at TJ Maxx and other companies, where they'd plant packet sniffers to scoop up a total of 40 million credit and debit cards. TJ Maxx alone has spent $130 million dealing with the aftermath of the intrusion. (((That's pretty rich considering that planting packet sniffers probably cost all of $130 to pull off.)))
Gonzalez and Yastremski were also charged in New York in May with an intrusion into the Dave & Busters restaurant chain.
But Gonzales has also worked the other side. (((Unfortunately, not for the Storm Worm, but we should have out hopes.))) He was arrested in New Jersey in 2003 for credit card fraud, and began cooperating with the Secret Service, becoming the key informant in "Operation Firewall" – the government's 2004 crackdown on the cybercrime supermarket Shadowcrew.com.
Under the handle "CumbaJohny," Gonzalez convinced members of Shadowcrew to use a private VPN service that was monitored by federal agents, leading to the coordinated arrest of 28 members in October 2004. (((The ol' hacker honeypot technique.))) But he also allegedly tipped off his co-conspirators to the operation, sparing them from the crackdown, the feds now say.
In the wake of Operation Firewall, the underground figured out that CumbaJohny was responsible. That's when Gonzalez allegedly reinvented himself as "Segvec." A member of the underground, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that nobody suspected that CumbaJohny and Segvec were the same person. "I always thought he was Russian." ((("And that's why I trusted him implicitly.")))
The feds were equally surprised to find Gonzalez behind the wave of retail intrusions that followed Operation Firewall, they said Tuesday. "We immediately took action," said Secret Service director Mark Sullivan. The government says the amount of credit cards stolen by Gonzalez makes him eligible for life imprisonment. (((Oh dear me.)))
Gonzalez was under pre-trial court supervision from his New Jersey case while he allegedly performed the crimes, court records show. The government is seeking forfeiture of Gonzalez's Miami condo, his 2006 BMW, a Glock 27 firearm, and a currency counter, among other things, as well as $1,650,000 in cash.... (((Move over, Miami Vice.)))
