US government charge man with theft of 130 million bank card details
The US government has today charged an alleged fraudster with the theft of 130 million credit and debit card details. If proven in court this will be the largest identity theft ever reported in the US and one of the largest ever in the world. It is alleged that Albert Gonzales, together with two unnamed Russian co-conspirators, managed to hack in to the payment system of prominent US retailers and took copies of credit card and debit card data.
Using complex hacking techniques the alleged fraudsters managed to break down firewalls and gain access to the central information databank where all of the confidential and critical data was held. Albert Gonzales could be on the verge of a 20 year jail sentence and a $500,000 fine if he is convicted of the theft and potentially a further five years for conspiracy.
While many people may jump on the Internet bandwagon and accuse companies of lax security, the truth is that this particular type of fraud could have happened well before the Internet came to the fore. Information has been held on computer systems for years and ultimately while precautions are taken with regards to security, no one system can ever be 100% secure.
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