Fergie's Tech Blog

Carder Linked to TJX Hack Jailed for 30 Years by Turkish Court

John Leyden writes on The Register:

A Ukrainian fraudster linked to the infamous TJX hack was sentenced to a 30 year prison sentence in Turkey on unrelated charges this week.

Maksym Yastremskiy (AKA Maksik) was found guilty of hacking into the computer systems of 12 Turkish banks, as well as committing computer fraud against them, according to local reports. The court also reportedly fined Yastremskiy $23,200.

Yastremskiy was arrested by police in Turkey in July 2007, after visiting a nightclub in the beach resort of Kemer, in an operation US law enforcement agencies soon realised was key to unraveling the TJX hacking case.

It emerged within weeks that Yastremskiy was fencing hundreds of hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers linked to hacking attacks at US retail outlets, including TJX, through various underground carders forums. Yastremskiy was charged last August with trafficking in stolen credit card information harvested from a string of retail firms including TJX, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Forever 21, DSW, and Marshall's, among others.

Alleged ringleader Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez of Miami allegedly conspired with ten other suspects (including Yastremskiy) to hack into the insecure networks maintained by the US retailers and lift 40 million credit and debit card numbers. Since the heist against TJX alone affected 45.6 million customers alone these colossal figures are, if anything, a possible underestimate of the possible extent of the crime.

posted by Fergie @ 1/08/2009 05:27:00 PM