Master Hacker Pleads Guilty
August 28, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
In one enormous case of identity theft, computer hacker Albert Gonzales will soon plead guilty to stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers for personal profit. Gonzales faces data theft charges in Massachusetts and New York, as well as a court mandate for the hacker to turn over $1.65 million in assets.
Gonzales faces 15 to 25 years in prison for stealing credit and debit card information from a variety of companies, including OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, and other popular retailers. According to prosecutors, Gonzales and several accomplices would look at the Fortune 500 list to find retailers, which they would then target and secure customers’ credit and debit card information through exploiting security vulnerabilities.
Currently, Gonzales is being held in federal custody at a detention center in Brooklyn, New York. Although he was originally working as an informant for the Secret Service around 2003, he was eventually investigated by the same branch of law enforcement that hired him, uncovering his criminal activities.
Image: Flickr
