Feds Charge Heartland, TJMaxx Hacker

The Los Angeles Times reports that "Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a former government informant with the nation's largest theft of credit and debit card data, accusing him of swiping 130 million accounts on top of 40 million he stole previously.

"Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami... who is already in jail awaiting trial in a hacking case, was indicted Monday in New Jersey and charged with conspiring with two unidentified Russians to steal the private information. Prosecutors say the goal was to sell the data to others.

"Prosecutors say Gonzalez, who is known online as 'soupnazi,' targeted customers of 7-Eleven Inc. and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers Co. Inc. He also targeted Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor.

"According to the indictment, Gonzalez and his two co-conspirators would hack into corporate networks to place 'malware,' malicious software that would allow them backdoor access later to steal data" which they allegedly sent to computer servers in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

"The Justice Department said the new case represents the largest breach of credit and debit card data ever charged in the United States.

"Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the new charges. He is awaiting trial next month in New York for allegedly helping hack into the computer network of the national restaurant chain Dave and Buster's. He also faces charges involving the theft of 40 million credit cards of retailers including T.J. Maxx, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority and OfficeMax."