Hackers Plead Guilty to Multimillion-Dollar Scheme

The Department of Justice recently announced that two Romanian hackers pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for stealing credit, debit and payment-account data from hundreds of U.S. merchants’ computer systems. The scheme compromised the security of 146,000 payment cards and caused losses greater than $10 million.

The two Romanians, both in their 20s, along with a third alleged co-conspirator currently awaiting trial, hacked into merchants’ point-of-sale (POS) systems by searching the internet for vulnerable U.S.-based POS systems that contained remote desktop software applications. The hackers used the remote applications, along with passwords that they were able to crack, to log into the POS systems. Once they got in, they installed keystroke loggers, which recorded all the data that customers swiped or keyed into merchants’ point-of-sale systems. They used the stolen data to make charges on or transfer funds from the accounts or to sell the account information to other criminals. Multiple agencies were involved in investigating and prosecuting the case.

Employees are the first line of defense in protecting proprietary and confidential information. WeComply’s 30-minute online information security training course covers topics including e-mail precautions, avoiding identity theft, electronic IDs and passwords, and workspace security.

Categories: Data Privacy & Security
Tags: Data Security, Information Security