From: security curmudgeon (jerichoattrition.org)
Date: Mon Mar 22 2010 - 01:30:06 CDT

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alertsinfosecnews.org>

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/gonzalez-gov-memo/

By Kevin Poulsen
Threat Level
Wired.com
March 19, 2010

Computer hacker Albert Gonzalez deserves a quarter-century behind bars for
leading a gang of cyberthieves who stole tens of millions of credit and
debit card numbers from a transaction processor and several giant retail
chains, federal prosecutors argued in a court filing Thursday night.

"[T]he sentences would be the longest ever imposed in an identity theft
case and among the longest imposed for a financial crime, which is
appropriate because Gonzalez was at the center of the largest and most
costly series of identity thefts in the nation's history," wrote
Boston-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann. "He knowingly
victimized a group of people whose population exceeded that of many major
cities and some states."

The government also disputed a defense claim that Gonzalez suffers from
Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that was grounds for a slightly
reduced sentence in a previous hacking prosecution.

Gonzalez, 28, is set for sentencing next week on three indictments
covering virtually every headline-making bank-card theft in recent years,
including intrusions at TJX, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Office Max, Hannaford
Brothers, 7-Eleven, and Heartland Payment Systems, which alone exposed
magstripe data on 130 million credit and debit cards. He performed the
intrusions while an informant for the Secret Service.

[...]
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