Russian Pleads Guilty In Hacking Case

A Russian man pleaded responsible within the USA on Tuesday to a serious position in a pc hacking scheme that authorities say concerned stealing and promoting 160 million credit score and debit card numbers.

Drinkman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Among the companies hit were Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, J.C. Penney, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Global Payment, and NASDAQ.

The value of the scam is reported to be around $300m (£195m). He faces as long as 30 years in prison for the wire fraud charge.

“Defendants like Vladimir Drinkman, who have the skills to break into our computer networks and the inclination to do so, pose a cutting edge threat to our economic well-being, our privacy and our national security, ” New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands on June 28, 2012, and was extradited to the District of New Jersey on February 17, 2015.

Once inside they were able to gather huge amounts of data on customers and clients of the companies involved, and sold this information on forums in exchange for around $10 per United States credit card and associated data and $50 per European credit card and associated data.

Drinkman and Kalinin were previously been charged as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” in a 2009 indictment accusing Albert Gonzalez of Miami over his involvement in five corporate data breaches. Drinkman has been accused of evading online security and entering corporate networks to steal credit card numbers and passwords. His sentencing will be decided on 15 January, 2016, reports said. Gonzalez is serving a 20-year federal prison term.

He was arrested there in 2012 while vacationing with another Russian, Dmitriy Smilianets, who is charged as a black-market broker.

Kalinin and two others remain at large, officials said. Smilianets was allegedly in charge of sales, selling the data only to trusted identity theft wholesalers.

The knowledge was bought to individuals who used it to create magnetic strips for counterfeit bank cards.

Despite being in U.S. custody, Smilyanets has managed to set up an online webpage that takes bitcoin donations for what he says is a defense fund for his legal expenses. He originally pled not guilty earlier this year but has obviously changed his tune in front of Chief Judge Jerome Simandle in a New Jersey district court.