Feds Indict 3 in Hannaford Identity Theft Case

JON SPRINGER

NEWARK, N.J. — U.S. attorneys here on Monday charged three individuals with stealing credit and debit card numbers from retailers, including Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford Bros., in what federal officials called the single largest data breach in U.S. history.

The indictment charges that Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, worked with two hackers based in Russia to steal account information and exploit vulnerabilities in the point-of-sale systems used by Hannaford and 7-Eleven. Data was also stolen from Heartland Payment Systems, which processes payments for retailers.

More than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen beginning in December 2007 by using malicious computer software and “sniffers” to conduct real-time interception of credit and debit card data being processed, the charges said. Around 4.2 million credit card numbers were stolen from Hannaford, according to the indictment. Hannaford reported the breach in March 2008.

Gonzalez and two individuals referred to as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” face charges of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers, commit fraud in connection with computers and damage computers and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each defendant faces a maximum of 35 years in prison.

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