;)
International Hacker Pleads Guilty for Massive "Wireless" Hack of U.S. Retail Networks
Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 10:21AM 
Geo - " This hack rippled through the security community and the general public by and large. Reportable over 40 million credit cards were exposed during this hack. This single event is the cause for the new PCI regulations and policies being implemented today. Those of us in wireless knew it was only a matter of time before such a hack of this magnitude would occur.Just last week I noticed a very large retail chain still using WEP, Apparently they didn’t get the memo!" LOL
According to the indictments to which Gonzalez pleaded guilty, he and his co-conspirators broke into retail credit card payment systems through a series of sophisticated techniques, including "wardriving" and installation of sniffer programs to capture credit and debit card
numbers used at these retail stores. Wardriving involves driving around in a car with a laptop computer looking for accessible wireless computer networks of retailers. Using these techniques, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators were able to steal more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from retailers. Also according to the indictments, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators sold the numbers to others for their fraudulent use and engaged in ATM fraud by encoding the data on the magnetic stripes of blank cards and withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATMs. According to the indictments, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators concealed and laundered their fraud proceeds by using anonymous Internet-based currencies both within the
United States and abroad, and by channeling funds through bank accounts in Eastern Europe.
Based on the terms of the Boston plea agreement, Gonzalez faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years in prison. Based on the New York plea agreement, Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison, which the parties have agreed should run concurrently. He also faces a fine of up to twice the pecuniary gain, twice the victims' pecuniary loss or $250,000, whichever is greatest, per count for the Boston case and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the New York case. Gonzalez
also agreed to an order of restitution for the loss suffered by his victims, and forfeiture of more than $2.7 million as well as multiple items of real estate and personal property, including a condo in Miami,
a 2006 BMW 330i, a Tiffany diamond ring and Rolex watches. Included in the forfeited currency is more than $1 million in cash, which Gonzalez had buried in a container in his backyard. Sentencing
is scheduled for Dec. 8, 2009.
Thanks to Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS159434+11-Sep-2009+PRN20090911
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