From The BBC:
US prosecutors have charged a man with stealing data relating to 130 million credit and debit cards.Officials say it is the biggest case of identity theft in American history. They say Albert Gonzalez, 28, and two un-named Russian co-conspirators hacked into the payment systems of retailers, including the 7-Eleven chain. Prosecutors say they aimed to sell the data on. If convicted, Mr Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in jail for wire fraud and five years for conspiracy. He would also have to pay a fine of $250,000 (£150,000) for each of the two charges. ‘Standard’ attack
Mr Gonzalez used a technique known as an “SQL injection attack” to access the databases and steal information, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said. Edward Wilding, a fraud investigator, told the BBC that this method was “a pretty standard way” for fraudsters to try to access personal data. It “exploits any vulnerability in a firewall and inserts a code to gather information,” he explained. However, he added that…
Leave a Reply