Intellectual Property Law

TJX Hacker to Plead Guilty to Heartland Breach

By Kim Zetter

Admitted TJX intruder Albert Gonzalez has entered into a plea agreement on charges that he hacked into Heartland Payment Systems, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven and two other unnamed national retailers.

The revelation comes in a filing made by Gonzalez’s attorney in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where the Heartland charges were filed in August.

A federal judge on Tuesday officially transferred the New Jersey case to Massachusetts, where Gonzalez is seeking to merge it with two other cases in which he’s already pleaded guilty.

Gonzalez, a former Secret Service informant known by the online nicks “segvec” and “Cumbajohnny,” was charged in New Jersey in August, along with two unnamed Russian hackers. They were accused of stealing more than 130 million debit and credit cards from card-processing company Heartland and the other target companies.

Gonzalez and 10 others were also charged in May 2008 in New York and in August 2008 in Massachusetts with network intrusions into TJX, OfficeMax, Dave & Busters restaurant chain and other companies. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to these charges in August and was scheduled to be sentenced in Massachusetts on Dec. 21 in both cases.

He was expected to get a sentence of between 15 and 25 years in prison. That sentencing is likely to be delayed now to allow time for the new guilty plea, and for the government, defense and U.S. probation office to recalibrate their sentencing positions to account for the New Jersey charges.

Photo courtesy U.S. law enforcement

See also:

• TJX Hacker Charged with Heartland, Hannaford Breaches
• TJX Suspect Was Near Plea Agreement Until New Charges Halted Talks
• Accused TJX Hacker Agrees to Guity Plea ? Faces 15 to 25 Years
• Card Processor Admits to Large Data Breach
• TJX Hacker Was Awash in Cash; His Penniless Coder Faces Prison
• Former Teen Hacker’s Suicide Linked to TJX Probe
• I Was a Cybercrook for the FBI
• Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold
• Hacking Godfather ‘Maksik’ Sentenced to 30 Years by Turkish Court
• Stakeouts, Lucky Breaks Snare Six More in Citibank ATM Heist

Full post as published by Threat Level on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).