Hacker charged, but his accomplices remain at large

In the cyber underground, hackers like Albert Gonzalez, who is accused of playing a central role in the two of largest data breaches in U.S. history, are often easily replaceable specialists. In August 2008, Gonzalez and 10 others -- including one Estonian, three Ukrainians, one suspect from China and one from Belarus -- were accused by federal authorities of cracking into databases at TJX, parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshall's, and several other large retail chains. They were accused of stealing credit and debit card transactions records, including some 94 million records from TJX alone. But even after Gonzalez was arrested and detained last summer, federal prosecutors say that a second, separate group of hackers he was involved in continued pilfering tens of millions of payment card account numbers from Heartland Payment Systems and four other companies. Gonzalez and two unnamed Russians -- identified only as Hacker 1 and Hacker 2 -- were indicted this week for those database breaches. Heartland alone lost some 130 million records, topping TJX's loss total. Posted in: Credit Card Fraud