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Global Hacking Scheme Broken Up

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Spanish officials are calling it the world’s biggest network of virus-infected computers. That’s right — 13 million computers were hacked and infected with a program that allowed for the theft of personal and financial data of unwitting citizens worldwide, in what investigators have termed the “Mariposa botnet.”

The culprits? Three Spaniards, ages 31, 30 and 25 who were arrested last week in Spain’s northern Vizcaya province. During a search of their homes and computers, police found personal information from more than 800,000 users.

The suspects “copied personal and financial data of individuals, companies and official institutions in more than 190 countries,” the Civil Guards’ statement said. In addition to gaining illegal access to personal and financial information, the virus would have permitted those controlling the system to mount a large cyberattack from the infected computers, a U.S. official said.

Apparently, the hacking was first detected in May by Defence Intelligence, a Canadian firm that develops software to monitor incoming and outgoing transmissions of every computer on a corporate network.

The botnet [or, a network of computers infected with a virus that can be controlled remotely without owners’ knowledge] included infected machines inside the offices of more than 40 major banks and a vast majority of the top companies on the Fortune 1000 index. Since its creation, Defence Intelligence has identified and helped to protect its customers against dozens of botnets and malicious software programs — with Mariposa botnet being the jewel in its crown.

Authorities are searching for a fourth suspect in this massive cybercrime. “Juan Salon of the Spanish Civil Guard’s cybercrime unit told reporters Wednesday investigators have learned the suspect’s Internet handle and that this person might be Venezuelan.”

Heartland Hacker Pleads Guilty

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You remember the January 2009 data breach of Heartland Payment Systems that exposed 130 million personal records, right? You should — it was the largest data breach of all time.

To give you a little background, Heartland Payment Systems processes 100  million credit and debit card transactions per month for 175,000 merchants. In late 2008, a hacker accessed the computers Heartland uses on a daily basis, jeopardizing 130 million customer records.

And finally, after almost one year of investigations, officials charged 28-year-old Albert Gonzalez of Miami. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to the payment card networks operated by Heartland, among other payment processing companies. But this was not Gonzalez’s first run-in with the law for hacking-related activities.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty in September 2009 in Boston to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft relating to hacks into numerous major U.S. retailers including TJX Companies, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. Gonzalez also pleaded guilty in September 2009 in Boston to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to hacks into the Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain, which were the subject of a May 2008 indictment in the Eastern District of New York.

Who knows where this cyber-scoundrel would have attacked next, had he not been caught. He faces sentencing in March for his crimes and will likely be sentenced to 17 to 25 years in prison.

Let’s take a look at the largest data breach incidents on record, listed by number of records breached, date and organizations affected.

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As hackers become more sophisticated, more pressure is put on IT risk managers. And with budgets tight and resources lacking, we will undoubtedly see our share of data breaches well into the future.

130,000,000 2009-01-20 Heartland Payment Systems
94,000,000 2007-01-17 TJX Companies Inc.
90,000,000 1984-06-01 TRW, Sears Roebuck
76,000,000 2009-10-05 National Archives and Records Administration
40,000,000 2005-06-19 CardSystems, Visa, MasterCard, American Express
30,000,000 2004-06-24 America Online
26,500,000 2006-05-22 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
25,000,000 2007-11-20 HM Revenue and Customs, TNT
17,000,000 2008-10-06 T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom
16,000,000 1986-11-01 Canada Revenue Agency