Albert Gonzalez
Encyclopedia
Albert Gonzalez is a computer hacker
and computer criminal who is accused of masterminding the combined credit card theft and subsequent reselling of more than 170 million card and ATM
numbers
from 2005 through 2007—the biggest such fraud in history.
Gonzalez and his accomplices used SQL injection
techniques to create malware
backdoors on several corporate systems in order to launch packet sniffing (specifically, ARP Spoofing
) attacks which allowed him to steal computer data
from internal corporate networks.
During his spree he was said to have thrown himself a $75,000 birthday party and complained about having to count $340,000 by hand after his currency-counting machine
broke. Gonzalez stayed at lavish hotels but his formal homes were modest.
Gonzalez had three federal indictments:
On March 25, 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Gonzales along with his crew were featured on the 5th season episode of the CNBC
series American Greed
titled: Episode 40: Hackers: Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
in the 1970s, bought him his first computer when he was 8. By the age of 9 he was reported to be actively removing computer virus
es.
Gonzalez, a Cuban-American, attended South Miami High School
in Miami, Florida
, where he was described as the "troubled" pack leader of computer nerds. In his senior year at the school he and friend used the library computer to hack into computer systems of the government of India
where they left messages about their culture. Reportedly India had to cancel government checks as a result. Gonzalez was not charged and was warned to stay away from a computer for six months.
In 2000 he moved to New York City
where he lived for three months before moving to Kearny, New Jersey
.
in magnetic strips on credit cards, debit cards and ATM cards so that the numbers could be used. Moderators of the website punished members who did not abide by the site's rules including providing refunds to buyers if the stolen card numbers proved invalid.
In addition to the card numbers, numerous other objects of identity theft were sold at auction, including counterfeit passports, drivers’ licenses, Social Security cards, credit cards, debit cards, birth certificates, college student identification cards, and health insurance cards. One member sold 18 million e-mail accounts with associated usernames, passwords, dates of birth, and other personally identifying information. Most of those indicted were members who actually sold illicit items. Members who maintained or moderated the website itself were indicted including one who attempted to register the .cc
domain name
Shadowcrew.cc
The Secret Service dubbed their investigation "Operation Firewall" and is believed that $4.3 million was stolen as Shadowcrew shared its information with other groups entitled Carderplanet and Darkprofits. The investigation involved units from the United States, Bulgaria
, Belarus
, Canada
, Poland
, Sweden
, the Netherlands and Ukraine
. Gonzalez was initially charged with possession of 15 fake credit and debit cards in Newark, New Jersey
, though he avoided jail time by providing evidence to the United States Secret Service
against his cohorts. 19 ShadowCrew members were indicted. He then returned to Miami.
in which 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen over an 18 month period ending in 2007 topping the 2005 breach of 40 million records at CardSystems Solutions
. Gonzalez and 10 others sought targets while wardriving
and seeking vulnerabilities in wireless network
s along U.S. Route 1
in Miami. They compromised cards at BJ's Wholesale Club
, DSW
, Office Max, Boston Market
, Barnes & Noble
, Sports Authority
and T.J. Maxx
.
The indictment referred to Gonzalez by the screen names
"cumbajohny", "soupnazi
", "segvec", "kingchilli" and "stanozlolz."
The hacking was an embarrassment to TJ Maxx, which discovered the breach in December 2006. The company initially believed the intrusion began in May 2006, but further investigation revealed breaches dating back to July 2005.
One of his co-conspirators was 7-foot-tall Stephen Watt, known in the hacker world as "Unix Terrorist" and "Jim Jones." Watt worked at Morgan Stanley
in New York City and wrote the sniffer program.
corporate network from a point of sale
location at a restaurant in Islandia, New York
. The incident occurred in September 2007. About 5,000 card numbers were stolen. Fraudulent transactions totaling $600,000 were reported on 675 of the cards.
Authorities became suspicious after the conspirators kept returning to the restaurant to reintroduce their hack because it would not restart after the company computers shut down.
Gonzalez was arrested in Room 1508 at the National Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida
. In various related raids authorities seized $1.6 million in cash (including $1.1 million in plastic bags in a three-foot drum buried in his parents' backyard), his laptops and a compact Glock pistol
.
Officials said that Gonzalez lived in a nondescript house in Miami.
He was in the Metropolitan Detention Center
in Brooklyn
when he was indicted in the Heartland attacks.
, Citibank
-branded 7-Eleven
ATM's and Hannaford Brothers computer systems. Heartland bore the bulk of the attack in which 130 million card numbers were stolen. Hannaford had 4.6 million numbers stolen. Two other retailers were not disclosed in the indictment however Gonzalez's attorney told StorefrontBacktalk that two of the retailers were J.C. Penney
and Target Corporation
. Heartland reported that it had lost $12.6 million in the attack including legal fees. Gonzalez allegedly called the scheme "Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin."
According to the indictment the attacks by Gonzalez and two unidentified hackers "in or near Russia
" along with unindicted conspirator "P.T." from Miami began on December 26, 2007, at Heartland Payment Systems
, August 2007 against 7-Eleven and Hannaford Brothers in November 2007 and two other unidentified companies.
Gonzalez and his co-horts targeted large companies and studied their check out terminals and then attacked the companies from internet-connected computers in New Jersey, Illinois, Latvia
, the Netherlands
and Ukraine
.
They covered their attacks over the Internet using more than one messaging screen name, storing data related to their attacks on multiple Hacking Platforms, disabling programs that logged inbound and outbound traffic over the Hacking Platforms, and disguising, through the use of “proxies
,” the Internet Protocol addresses from which their attacks originated.
The indictment said the hackers tested their program against 20 anti virus programs.
Rene Palomino Jr., attorney for Gonzalez, charged in a blog on the New York Times website that the indictment arose out of squabbling among U.S. Attorney offices in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Palomino said that Gonzalez was in negotiations with New York and Massachusetts for a plea deal in connection with the T.J. Maxx case when New Jersey made its indictment. Palomino identified the unindicted conspirator "P.T." as Damon Patrick Toey who had pled guilty in the T.J. Maxx case. Palomino said Toey rather than Gonzalez was the ring leader of the Heartland case. Palomino further said, “Mr. Toey has been cooperating since Day One. He was staying at (Gonzalez’s) apartment. This whole creation was Mr. Toey’s idea...It was his baby. This was not Albert Gonzalez. I know for a fact that he wasn’t involved in all of the chains that were hacked from New Jersey.”
Palomino said one of the unnamed Russian hackers in the Heartland case was Maksym Yastremskiy who was also indicted in the T.J. Maxx but is now serving 30 years in a Turkish
prison on a charge of hacking Turkish banks in a separate matter. Investigators said Yastremskiy and Gonzalez exchanged 600 messages and that Gonzalez paid him $400,000 through e-gold
.
Yastremskiy was arrested in July 2007 in Turkey on charges of hacking into 12 banks in Turkey
. The Secret Service investigation into him was used to build the case against Gonzalez including a sneak and peek
covert review of Yastremskiy's laptop in Dubai
in 2006 and a review of the disk image
of the Latvia computer leased from Cronos IT and alleged to have been used in the attacks.
After the indictment Heartland issued a statement saying that it does not know how many card numbers were stolen from the company and that it does not know how the U.S. government reached the 130 million number.
in Boston indicating that he would plead guilty to all 19 charges in the U.S. v. Albert Gonzalez, 08-CR-10223, case (the TJ Maxx case). According to reports this plea bargain
would "resolve" issues with the New York case of U.S. v. Yastremskiy, 08-CR-00160 in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
(the Dave and Busters case).
Gonzalez could serve a term of 15 years to 25 years. He would forfeit more than $1.65 million, a condominium in Miami, a blue 2006 BMW 330i automobile, IBM
and Toshiba
laptop computers, a Glock 27 firearm, a Nokia
cell phone, a Tiffany
diamond ring and three Rolex
watches.
His sentence would run concurrent with whatever comes out of the case in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
(meaning that he would serve the longest of the sentences he receives).
In March 2010, he received two concurrent 20 year terms. On March 25, 2011, he filed in U.S. District Court in Boston to withdraw his guilty plea. He said his attorneys had not advised him he could have used a “public authority” defense option because he said he had been working for the United States Secret Service to seek out international cybercriminals.
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
and computer criminal who is accused of masterminding the combined credit card theft and subsequent reselling of more than 170 million card and ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
numbers
Bank card number
A bank card number is the primary account number found on credit cards and bank cards. It has a certain amount of internal structure and shares a common numbering scheme. Credit card numbers are a special case of ISO/IEC 7812 bank card numbers....
from 2005 through 2007—the biggest such fraud in history.
Gonzalez and his accomplices used SQL injection
SQL injection
A SQL injection is often used to attack the security of a website by inputting SQL statements in a web form to get a badly designed website in order to dump the database content to the attacker. SQL injection is a code injection technique that exploits a security vulnerability in a website's software...
techniques to create malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior...
backdoors on several corporate systems in order to launch packet sniffing (specifically, ARP Spoofing
ARP spoofing
ARP spoofing, also known as ARP cache poisoning or ARP poison routing , is a technique used to attack a local-area network . ARP spoofing may allow an attacker to intercept data frames on a LAN, modify the traffic, or stop the traffic altogether...
) attacks which allowed him to steal computer data
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
from internal corporate networks.
During his spree he was said to have thrown himself a $75,000 birthday party and complained about having to count $340,000 by hand after his currency-counting machine
Currency-counting machine
A currency-counting machine is a machine that counts money—either stacks of banknotes or loose collections of coins. Counters may be purely mechanical or use electronic components...
broke. Gonzalez stayed at lavish hotels but his formal homes were modest.
Gonzalez had three federal indictments:
- May 2008 in New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for the Dave & Busters case (trial schedule September 2009) - May 2008 in MassachusettsMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
for the TJ Maxx case (trial scheduled early 2010) - August 2009 in New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in connection with the Heartland Payment case.
On March 25, 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Gonzales along with his crew were featured on the 5th season episode of the CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
series American Greed
American Greed
-Season 2:Episode #7 The Martin Frankel CaseFinancier Martin Frankel, a con-man who vanished with $200 million dollars. A story of money laundering, prostitution, bizarre sex and drug abuse.Episode #8 When Greed and Giving Collide...
titled: Episode 40: Hackers: Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
Early life
His parents, who had immigrated to the United States from CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in the 1970s, bought him his first computer when he was 8. By the age of 9 he was reported to be actively removing computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
es.
Gonzalez, a Cuban-American, attended South Miami High School
South Miami High School
South Miami Senior High School is a high school located at 6856 SW 53rd Street in Miami, Florida, in the United States. Its principal is Gilberto Bonce.The school is about a mile and a half west of the University of Miami...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, where he was described as the "troubled" pack leader of computer nerds. In his senior year at the school he and friend used the library computer to hack into computer systems of the government of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
where they left messages about their culture. Reportedly India had to cancel government checks as a result. Gonzalez was not charged and was warned to stay away from a computer for six months.
In 2000 he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he lived for three months before moving to Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 40,684. The town is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark....
.
Shadowcrew
While in Kearny he was accused of being the mastermind of a group of hackers called the Shadowcrew group, which trafficked in 1.5 million stolen credit and ATM card numbers. Although considered the mastermind of the scheme (operating on the site under the screen name of "CumbaJohnny"), he was not indicted. According to the indictment there were 4,000 people who registered with the Shadowcrew.com website. Once registered they could buy stolen account numbers or counterfeit documents at auction or read “Tutorials and How-To’s” describing the use of cryptographyCryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
in magnetic strips on credit cards, debit cards and ATM cards so that the numbers could be used. Moderators of the website punished members who did not abide by the site's rules including providing refunds to buyers if the stolen card numbers proved invalid.
In addition to the card numbers, numerous other objects of identity theft were sold at auction, including counterfeit passports, drivers’ licenses, Social Security cards, credit cards, debit cards, birth certificates, college student identification cards, and health insurance cards. One member sold 18 million e-mail accounts with associated usernames, passwords, dates of birth, and other personally identifying information. Most of those indicted were members who actually sold illicit items. Members who maintained or moderated the website itself were indicted including one who attempted to register the .cc
.cc
.cc is the Internet country code top-level domain for Cocos Islands, an Australian territory. It is administered by VeriSign through a subsidiary company eNIC, which promotes it for international registration as "the next .com"; .cc was originally assigned in October 1997 to eNIC Corporation of...
domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
Shadowcrew.cc
The Secret Service dubbed their investigation "Operation Firewall" and is believed that $4.3 million was stolen as Shadowcrew shared its information with other groups entitled Carderplanet and Darkprofits. The investigation involved units from the United States, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, the Netherlands and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Gonzalez was initially charged with possession of 15 fake credit and debit cards in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, though he avoided jail time by providing evidence to the United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
against his cohorts. 19 ShadowCrew members were indicted. He then returned to Miami.
TJX Companies
While cooperating with authorities, he was said to have masterminded the hacking of TJX CompaniesTJX Companies
The TJX Companies, Incorporated , is the largest international apparel and home fashions off-price department store chain in the United States. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, the company originally evolved from the Zayre discount department store chain, founded in 1956, which opened its first...
in which 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen over an 18 month period ending in 2007 topping the 2005 breach of 40 million records at CardSystems Solutions
CardSystems Solutions
CardSystems Solutions was a credit card processing company. In June 2005, the fact that 40 million credit cards had been stolen from CardSystems was discovered. This led to the discoveries that CardSystems had been keeping data in unencrypted form that it was contractually obligated to delete, and...
. Gonzalez and 10 others sought targets while wardriving
Wardriving
Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer, smartphone or PDA....
and seeking vulnerabilities in wireless network
Wireless network
Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment...
s along U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1
U.S. Route 1 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,377 miles from Fort Kent, Maine at the Canadian border south to Key West, Florida. U.S. 1 generally parallels Interstate 95, though it is significantly farther west between...
in Miami. They compromised cards at BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. , commonly referred to simply as BJ's, is a membership-only warehouse club chain operating on the United States East Coast, as well as in the state of Ohio...
, DSW
DSW, Inc.
-History:DSW opened its first store in July 1991 in Dublin, Ohio. In 1998, Value City Department Stores, Inc. purchased DSW. In December 2004, Retail Ventures, Inc. consolidated several brands. Until July 5, 2005, DSW operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc...
, Office Max, Boston Market
Boston Market
Boston Market, known as Boston Chicken until 1995, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, is a chain of American fast casual restaurants. It is owned by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.-History:...
, Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, Sports Authority
Sports Authority
The Sports Authority, Inc. is one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the United States. It is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, and operates more than 460 stores in 45 U.S...
and T.J. Maxx
T.J. Maxx
T.J. Maxx, sometimes referred to as TJ's or the Maxx, is an American department store chain owned by TJX Companies. With more than 900 stores T.J. Maxx is a major clothes retailer in the United States, whilst also operating stores in a number of other countries.-History:In 1976, T.J...
.
The indictment referred to Gonzalez by the screen names
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
"cumbajohny", "soupnazi
The Soup Nazi
"The Soup Nazi" is the title of the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which was the 6th episode of the 7th season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995....
", "segvec", "kingchilli" and "stanozlolz."
The hacking was an embarrassment to TJ Maxx, which discovered the breach in December 2006. The company initially believed the intrusion began in May 2006, but further investigation revealed breaches dating back to July 2005.
One of his co-conspirators was 7-foot-tall Stephen Watt, known in the hacker world as "Unix Terrorist" and "Jim Jones." Watt worked at Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....
in New York City and wrote the sniffer program.
Arrest
Gonzalez was arrested on May 7, 2008 on charges stemming from hacking into the Dave & Buster'sDave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Each D&B has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of July 1, 2009, the company had 57 locations across the United States and two in Canada. The company also licenses the D&B concept...
corporate network from a point of sale
Point of sale
Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...
location at a restaurant in Islandia, New York
Islandia, New York
Islandia is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 3,057 at the 2000 census.The Village of Islandia is in the northern part of the Town of Islip.-Overview:...
. The incident occurred in September 2007. About 5,000 card numbers were stolen. Fraudulent transactions totaling $600,000 were reported on 675 of the cards.
Authorities became suspicious after the conspirators kept returning to the restaurant to reintroduce their hack because it would not restart after the company computers shut down.
Gonzalez was arrested in Room 1508 at the National Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
. In various related raids authorities seized $1.6 million in cash (including $1.1 million in plastic bags in a three-foot drum buried in his parents' backyard), his laptops and a compact Glock pistol
Glock pistol
The Glock pistol, sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as Glock "Safe Action" Pistol, is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. The company's founder, engineer Gaston Glock, had no experience with firearm design or...
.
Officials said that Gonzalez lived in a nondescript house in Miami.
He was in the Metropolitan Detention Center
Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn
The Metropolitan Detention Center located at 80 29th Street near Gowanus Bay, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on 29th Street, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, is one of several MDCs operated by the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons....
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
when he was indicted in the Heartland attacks.
Heartland Payment Systems
In August 2009 Gonzalez was indicted in Newark, New Jersey on charges dealing with hacking into the Heartland Payment SystemsHeartland Payment Systems
Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. provides debit, prepaid, and credit card processing, online payments, check processing, payroll services and a growing line of industry solutions for small to mid-sized merchants. Heartland Payment Systems is currently the fifth largest credit card processor in the...
, Citibank
Citibank
Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
-branded 7-Eleven
7-Eleven
7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
ATM's and Hannaford Brothers computer systems. Heartland bore the bulk of the attack in which 130 million card numbers were stolen. Hannaford had 4.6 million numbers stolen. Two other retailers were not disclosed in the indictment however Gonzalez's attorney told StorefrontBacktalk that two of the retailers were J.C. Penney
J.C. Penney
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
and Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
. Heartland reported that it had lost $12.6 million in the attack including legal fees. Gonzalez allegedly called the scheme "Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin."
According to the indictment the attacks by Gonzalez and two unidentified hackers "in or near Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
" along with unindicted conspirator "P.T." from Miami began on December 26, 2007, at Heartland Payment Systems
Heartland Payment Systems
Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. provides debit, prepaid, and credit card processing, online payments, check processing, payroll services and a growing line of industry solutions for small to mid-sized merchants. Heartland Payment Systems is currently the fifth largest credit card processor in the...
, August 2007 against 7-Eleven and Hannaford Brothers in November 2007 and two other unidentified companies.
Gonzalez and his co-horts targeted large companies and studied their check out terminals and then attacked the companies from internet-connected computers in New Jersey, Illinois, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
They covered their attacks over the Internet using more than one messaging screen name, storing data related to their attacks on multiple Hacking Platforms, disabling programs that logged inbound and outbound traffic over the Hacking Platforms, and disguising, through the use of “proxies
Proxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
,” the Internet Protocol addresses from which their attacks originated.
The indictment said the hackers tested their program against 20 anti virus programs.
Rene Palomino Jr., attorney for Gonzalez, charged in a blog on the New York Times website that the indictment arose out of squabbling among U.S. Attorney offices in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Palomino said that Gonzalez was in negotiations with New York and Massachusetts for a plea deal in connection with the T.J. Maxx case when New Jersey made its indictment. Palomino identified the unindicted conspirator "P.T." as Damon Patrick Toey who had pled guilty in the T.J. Maxx case. Palomino said Toey rather than Gonzalez was the ring leader of the Heartland case. Palomino further said, “Mr. Toey has been cooperating since Day One. He was staying at (Gonzalez’s) apartment. This whole creation was Mr. Toey’s idea...It was his baby. This was not Albert Gonzalez. I know for a fact that he wasn’t involved in all of the chains that were hacked from New Jersey.”
Palomino said one of the unnamed Russian hackers in the Heartland case was Maksym Yastremskiy who was also indicted in the T.J. Maxx but is now serving 30 years in a Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
prison on a charge of hacking Turkish banks in a separate matter. Investigators said Yastremskiy and Gonzalez exchanged 600 messages and that Gonzalez paid him $400,000 through e-gold
E-gold
e-gold is a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. under e-gold Ltd., and allowed the instant transfer of gold ownership between users until 2009 when transfers were suspended due to legal issues. e-gold Ltd...
.
Yastremskiy was arrested in July 2007 in Turkey on charges of hacking into 12 banks in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The Secret Service investigation into him was used to build the case against Gonzalez including a sneak and peek
Sneak and peek warrant
A sneak and peek search warrant is a search warrant authorizing the law enforcement officers executing it to effect physical entry into private premises without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge and to clandestinely search the premises; usually, such entry requires a...
covert review of Yastremskiy's laptop in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
in 2006 and a review of the disk image
Disk image
A disk image is a single file or storage device containing the complete contents and structure representing a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, tape drive, floppy disk, CD/DVD/BD, or USB flash drive, although an image of an optical disc may be referred to as an optical disc image...
of the Latvia computer leased from Cronos IT and alleged to have been used in the attacks.
After the indictment Heartland issued a statement saying that it does not know how many card numbers were stolen from the company and that it does not know how the U.S. government reached the 130 million number.
Plea bargain
On August 28, 2009, his attorney filed papers with the United States District Court for the District of MassachusettsUnited States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA. The first court session was held in Boston in 1789. The second term was held in Salem in 1790 and until 1813 court session locations...
in Boston indicating that he would plead guilty to all 19 charges in the U.S. v. Albert Gonzalez, 08-CR-10223, case (the TJ Maxx case). According to reports this plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
would "resolve" issues with the New York case of U.S. v. Yastremskiy, 08-CR-00160 in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the entirety of Long Island and Staten Island...
(the Dave and Busters case).
Gonzalez could serve a term of 15 years to 25 years. He would forfeit more than $1.65 million, a condominium in Miami, a blue 2006 BMW 330i automobile, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
laptop computers, a Glock 27 firearm, a Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
cell phone, a Tiffany
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
diamond ring and three Rolex
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...
watches.
His sentence would run concurrent with whatever comes out of the case in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of New Jersey....
(meaning that he would serve the longest of the sentences he receives).
In March 2010, he received two concurrent 20 year terms. On March 25, 2011, he filed in U.S. District Court in Boston to withdraw his guilty plea. He said his attorneys had not advised him he could have used a “public authority” defense option because he said he had been working for the United States Secret Service to seek out international cybercriminals.