DOJ Announces Five Indictments in Largest Known Data Breach Case

DOJ Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security

On July 25, the DOJ announced the indictment of five individuals accused of conspiring in a worldwide hacking and data breach scheme that targeted major corporate networks, stole more than 160 million credit card numbers and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The DOJ believes the defendants and others conspired to use a “SQL injection attack” to penetrate the computer networks of several of the largest payment processing companies, retailers and financial institutions in the world. Once started, the attacks could last months while the defendants worked to steal user names and passwords, means of identification, credit and debit card numbers and other corresponding personal identification information of cardholders, and subsequently sell the data to end-users who used the data to make fraudulent ATM withdrawals or credit card purchases. The DOJ’s action was based on the findings of an extensive Secret Service investigation.