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Hackers Indicted for Largest Known Data Breach Conspiracy

Friday, 07/26/2013 - DFI News

U.S. Dept. of Justice

A federal indictment made public in New Jersey charges five men with conspiring in a worldwide hacking and data breach scheme that targeted major corporate networks, stole more than 160 million credit card numbers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. It is the largest such scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.

The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman of the District of New Jersey; Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge James Mottola of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Criminal Investigations, Newark, N.J., Division. The USSS led the investigation of the indicted conspiracy.

The defendants allegedly sought corporate victims engaged in financial transactions, retailers that received and transmitted financial data and other institutions with information they could exploit for profit. The defendants are charged with attacks on NASDAQ, 7-Eleven, Carrefour, JCP, Hannaford, Heartland, Wet Seal, Commidea, Dexia, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Euronet, Visa Jordan, Global Payment, Diners Singapore and Ingenicard. It is not alleged that the NASDAQ hack affected its trading platform.

 According to the second superseding indictment unsealed in Newark federal court and other court filings, the five men each served particular roles in the scheme. Vladimir Drinkman, 32, of Syktyykar and Moscow, Russia, and Alexandr Kalinin, 26, of St. Petersburg, Russia, each allegedly specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate victims’ systems. Roman Kotov, 32, of Moscow, allegedly specialized in mining the networks Drinkman and Kalinin compromised to steal valuable data. Court documents allege that the defendants hid their activities using anonymous web-hosting services provided by Mikhail Rytikov, 26, of Odessa, Ukraine.  Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow, allegedly sold the information stolen by the other conspirators and distributed the proceeds of the scheme to the participants.

 “This type of crime is the cutting edge,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman. “Those who have the expertise and the inclination to break into our computer networks threaten our economic well-being, our privacy, and our national security. And this case shows, there is a real practical cost because these types of frauds increase the costs of doing business for every American consumer, every day.  We cannot be too vigilant and we cannot be too careful.”

 “The defendants charged today were allegedly responsible for spearheading a worldwide hacking conspiracy that victimized a wide array of consumers and entities, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman. “Despite substantial efforts by the defendants to conceal their alleged crimes, the Department and its law enforcement counterparts have cracked this extensive scheme and are seeking justice for its many victims. Today’s indictment will no doubt serve as a serious warning to those who would utilize illegal and fraudulent means to steal sensitive information online.”

 “As is evident by this indictment, the Secret Service will continue to apply innovative techniques to successfully investigate and arrest transnational cyber criminals,” said USSS Special Agent in Charge Mottola. “While the global nature of cybercrime continues to have a profound impact on our financial institutions, this case demonstrates the global investigative steps that U.S. Secret Service Special Agents are taking to ensure that criminals will be pursued and prosecuted no matter where they reside.”

 Kalinin and Drinkman were previously charged in New Jersey as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” in a 2009 indictment charging Albert Gonzalez, 32, of Miami, in connection with five corporate data breaches — including the breach of Heartland Payment Systems Inc., which at the time was the largest breach ever reported.  Gonzalez is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for those offenses.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced two additional indictments against Kalinin: one charges him in connection with hacking certain computer servers used by NASDAQ and a second indictment, unsealed today, charged Kalinin and another alleged Russian hacker, Nikolay Nasenkov, with an international scheme to steal bank account information by hacking U.S.-based financial institutions. Rytikov was previously charged in the Eastern District of Virginia with an unrelated scheme.  Kotov and Smilianets have not previously been charged publicly in the United States.

 Drinkman and Smilianets were arrested at the request of the United States while traveling in the Netherlands on June 28, 2012. Smilianets was extradited on Sept. 7, 2012, and remains in federal custody. He will appear in New Jersey federal court to be arraigned on the superseding indictment on a date to be determined. Kalinin, Kotov and Rytikov remain at large. All of the defendants are Russian nationals except for Rytikov, who is a citizen of Ukraine.

 The Attacks:  Read More From the Dept. of Justice Report

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