Five Charged In Largest Hacking Scheme Ever Prosecuted In US 84
wiredmikey writes "US authorities have charged four Russians and a Ukrainian five on charges of running a global hacking operation that targeted major payment processors, retailers and financial institutions. The charges stem from hacking attacks dating back to 2005 against several global brands, including the NASDAQ exchange, 7-Eleven, JC Penney, Hannaford, Heartland, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Euronet, Visa Jordan, Global Payment, Diners Singapore and Ingenicard. The men allegedly used SQL injection attacks as the initial entry point into the computer systems of global corporations. Once networks were breached, the defendants allegedly placed malware on the systems. According to the indictment (PDF), the malware used created a "back door," leaving the system vulnerable and helping the defendants maintain access to the network. The men face five years in prison for conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers; 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud; five years in prison for unauthorized access to computers; and 30 years in prison for wire fraud."
On the other hand (Score:5, Interesting)
The USA has a nasty habit of not submitting its own citizens to foreign laws but sanctions over Edward Snowden might result in Russia playing the same game. For some time Russia has been the cyber-criminal capital so sanctions would result in the USA shooting itself in the foot. Not that it would help these criminals; they were arrested in Holland.
Re:Punishment out of proportions? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, that's what I thought on reading the summary too. 30 years for wire fraud?
I read an interesting article in the Economist [economist.com] the other week. It suggested that countries where children are spanked tend to have populations that support harsher prison sentences.
Correlation does not imply causation and all that, but it's still an interesting theory as to why the US is so far out of step with the rest of the world on crime and punishment.
The nerve! (Score:4, Interesting)
How DARE they steal all that money before the bankers could steal it!
Hacking is irrevelant when the global economy went to shit. And the people who did THAT will never see the inside of a jail cell.
And now we spent even more finding these 'hackers'.
We are not smart...