Back in 2009 we posted about that too – TJX Hacker Albert “Segvec” Gonzalez Indicted By Federal Grand Jury.

And now he’s saying his actions were endorsed by the government and that he was paid $1200USD a month to get close to the underground hacker community.

Convicted hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the massive hacks at TJX, Heartland and numerous retailers, now claims that he thought he was authorized and directed by the government to carry out the illegal activities.

In a petition filed last month, first reported by Wired , Gonzalez informed the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that he would like to withdraw his guilty plea and asked the court to vacate its sentence. In his 25-page petition, Gonzalez blamed his attorneys Martin Weinberg and Rene Palomino for not properly representing him or informing him about his defense options. Gonzalez also claimed that his lawyers did not appeal his sentence as he had asked them to.

Gonzalez was arrested in Miami in 2008 along with 10 other individuals on charges relating to the thefts at TJX, Dave & Busters, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW. Later he was also charged with the break-ins at Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford, 7-Eleven and two other unnamed retailers. Gonzalez was indicted in three different states, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey for his crimes. Prosecutors alleged that Gonzalez and his international gang of cyber criminals stole data on more than 130 million debit and credit cards over a multi-year period.

I guess the fact he’s serving a 20 year sentence has really sunk in and he’s looking at ways to get out the jail time. It’s a feasible enough story I suppose, almost like the online version of a snitch. They get paid allowances too for sneaking around, watching what dodgy characters are up to and reporting back to their police buddies.

Plus if this guy does have some legitimate hacking skills and he used then to get close to carding rings and infiltrate chat rooms he could get some very useful information. It’d be a shame if his tale is true and he’s basically been stitched up by the US Government.

In Sept. 2009, Gonzalez, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to two concurrent 20 year terms by federal courts in Massachusetts and NJ.

In his petition, Gonzalez claims that all of the criminal activities that he admitted to in court were actually done with the full knowledge and the direction of the United States Secret Service.

As previously known, Gonzalez noted that he had begun working as a confidential informant for the Secret Service back in 2003 soon after he was busted in connection with a series of ATM thefts. Gonzalez claims that over the next several years, he helped the Secret Service infiltrate various carder gangs and hacking groups, leading to the arrests of many of them.

Gonzalez’ petition details his interactions with two of his Secret Service handlers, who he claims treated him almost like another member of the agency and took him to different parts of the country for undercover work.

“The Agents had me infiltrating chat rooms setting people up and then the Agents would bust them,” he offers as one example of the work he claims to have done for the government. “On one occasion I was taken to California for a week to help Agents there with undercover operation that resulted in arrests and convictions,” Gonzalez said in his petition.

The only thing that puzzles me is why did it take him two years to do this? I’m pretty sure if it were true he would have filed straight away.

Anyway we’ll have to wait a while I guess to see what the courts think of his filing. It is possible he could have been misrepresented by his attorney and got a really bum deal.

If that’s the case, good luck Albert!

Source: Network World

We’ve been following the whole TJX saga for quite some time now since way back in September 2007 when the hack became public as the Largest Breach of Customer Data in U.S. History and in August 2008 when the TJX Credit Card Hackers Got Busted.

The legal system has ticked along and now they have to stand up for their charges, which are spiraling as more and more cases are linked to them.

Albert “Segvec” Gonzalez has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey — along with two unnamed Russian conspirators — on charges of hacking into Heartland Payment Systems, the New Jersey-based card processing company, as well as Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven and two unnamed national retailers, according to the indictment unsealed Monday. Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant, is already awaiting trial over his involvement in the TJX hack.

According to the court document, the hackers allegedly stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers (.pdf) from Heartland and Hannaford combined. Prosecutors say they believe these breaches constitute the largest data-breach and identity-theft case ever prosecuted in the United States. They’re investigating other breaches and have not ruled out Gonzalez’s involvement in even more intrusions.

“We’re not seeing a huge array of hackers capable of doing this, but rather a more select group, [and that] demonstrates that there is a level of sophistication involved in these hacks,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Erez Liebermann of the Justice Department’s New Jersey district office.

As with most things, 80% of the damage is done by 20% of the people. I’d say in this case it’s more like 98% of the damage is done by 2% of the hackers only a few of which ever get caught.

I think these guys just got too greedy and went after too many targets, but then their credit card theft ring is called “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin”. They aren’t likely to die, but they are likely to go down for a long time.

But these are just the latest in a string of high-profile breaches that have been connected to Gonzalez. He and 10 others were charged in May and August 2008 with network intrusions into TJX, OfficeMax, Dave & Busters restaurant chain and other companies. Jury selection is slated to begin Sept. 14 in one of those cases. With regard to the Heartland-Hannaford cases, Gonzalez and the two unnamed Russian hackers have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

They each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a possible maximum fine of $250,000 on the computer-fraud count and an additional 30 years and $1 million fine on the wire-fraud count, or twice the amount they gained from the offense, whichever is greater.

Attorneys for Gonzalez were not available for comment.

According to the New Jersey indictment, Gonzalez, 28, and an uncharged conspirator identified only as “P.T.,” allegedly found their targets on a list of Fortune 500 companies and then did reconnaissance to determine the payment-processing systems they used and uncover vulnerabilities. The hackers used computers they leased or controlled in California, Illinois and New Jersey as well as in Latvia, Ukraine and the Netherlands to store malware, launch their attacks against the networks, and receive the stolen numbers.

If you tally up all the counts that could be one hell of a sentence, especially with the 30 years for the wire-fraud tacked on. I guess if they ever manage to get out of prison, they might get to enjoy the millions they have stolen.

That is assuming they’ve laundered it and stashed it safely somewhere outside the jurisdiction of a US federal investigation.

Either way it’s an interesting case and I’m sure there will be more news about it.

Source: Wired (Thanks Navin)

You should be familiar with the TJX case by now (TJX Largest Breach of Customer Data in U.S. History) and we’ve been following it here for a couple of years.

We reported back in August last year that the TJX Credit Card Hackers were Busted and now one of the 11 guys involved has been slammed with one of the longest ever cybercrime sentences. He wasn’t directly involved in the TJX hack but he does seem to be one of the ‘enablers’ trading the stolen details and aiding in money laundering. He he said to have a made a massive $11 million from this!

Yastremskiy – or ‘Maksik’ as he was sometimes identified – was one of 11 people eventually arrested at the request of the US Department of Justice, with the Ukrainian reportedly being apprehended in undignified fashion outside a Turkish nightclub in 2008.

Yastremskiy’s part in the crime was allegedly to have purchased credit card numbers stolen during the huge crime, providing the gang with an economic hub for its activities. Other members of the gang hailed from Estonia, Belarus, China, and several parts of the US itself, underlining the global nature of modern electronic crime.

Although not the perpetrator of the hack itself, Yastremskiy would have been essential to its success. He is reported to have been suspected of being behind other crimes not related to the TJX Maxx affair.

Apparently on top of the crazy life sentence (life sentence is usually considered as 25 years) he got fined $23,000 as well – but that’s peanuts compared to the 11 mills he’s made. I think it’s a pretty harsh sentence, but the guy was flaunting it…not very wise really. And he was committing some pretty serious offline fraud with the money laundering, he was bound to get screwed with the US on his tail.

He was actually charged in August when we reported it for trafficking in stolen credit card information harvested from a string of retail firms including TJX, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Forever 21, DSW, and Marshall’s, amongst others.

The TJX hack will go down as the first major disclosed commercial hack in history, after US-based hackers were able to ‘wardrive’ their way into a poorly-protected Wi-Fi system used for point-of-sale traffic. Forty-five million customer credit cards were said to have been exposed, leaving parent company. TJX Maxx, owning up to potential liabilities of at least $118 million.

Security vendors queued up to declare their satisfaction at the sentence. “Yastremskiy will certainly have plenty of time to ponder whether his hacking activities were worthwhile,” commented Graham Cluley of Sophos.

“The length of this jail time should also make others engaged in cybercrime think again,” he said. “It may seem like the chances of being caught are small, but there are more and more convictions happening all the time, and the authorities are getting better than ever at co-operating at an international level to catch the bad guys.”

US authorities have filed extradition papers but he still stood trial in Turkey for separate offences, if he ever makes it to the US it’s a good guess that he can cut a sweet deal by being a star witness for the prosecution and getting a reduced sentence in a much more comfortable white-collar US prison.

What do you guys think about the sentence, too harsh?

Source: Network World