Tag Archives: Heartland Payment Systems

Informants & Alberto Gonzalez: She Swallowed the Spider to Catch the Fly

In August, Albert Gonzalez was indicted for the theft of credit and debit card information from Hartland Payment Systems, the largest known breach of its kind, while awaiting trial for a similar attack against TJX, the second largest known breach of its kind.  Last week, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to nineteen charges relating to his role in the TJX breach (see Gonzalez’s 2008 indictment (.pdf) for list of the various charges).… More

Incident of the Week (Year?): Hacker Responsible for Largest Data Breach in U.S. History Indicted

According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, yesterday an "indictment was returned against three individuals who are charged with being responsible for five corporate data breaches, including the single largest reported data breach in U.S. history."  According to the press release, the indictment describes a scheme whereby Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez and two unnamed Russian defendants (identified as "Hacker 1"… More

Trends in Data Breach Incidents, Part 1: Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) Reports Breaches Up 47% in 2008, Hackers Only Responsible for 13.9% of All Incidents

On January 2, 2009, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) released its report(.pdf) on data breaches in the United States in 2008 (you can read the Washington Post’s primer on the ITRC’s findings here). The raw numbers are headline grabbing — 656 data breaches in 2008, a 47% increase from 2007. The sharp increase in numbers from 2007 to 2008 could be a result of an increase in data breach incidents,… More