Hacker Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Stealing Credit Card Numbers

One of the most notorious hackers of today, Albert Gonzalez, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for successfully stealing tens of millions of credit card numbers for online purchases in an operation that was organized worldwide, reported ciol.com.

Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old failed student of the University of Miami, admitted to being one of the organizers of the global theft of credit card numbers from individuals who used them for online purchases. Gonzalez confessed to stealing 40 million numbers, primarily by infiltrating the computer systems of numerous retail stores. He received the harshest sentence ever imposed by a U.S. court on a defendant for electronic crime, stated Mark Rasch, former head of the computer crime unit of the U.S. Department of Justice. Gonzalez and his accomplices, who are scattered around the globe, caused damages of $200 million, explained Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann. He also emphasized that it is impossible to determine the exact amount of money that the thieves stole from individuals, as they literally went to ATMs and withdrew bundles of cash from their victims’ accounts, Heymann testified in court in Boston.

Gonzalez was originally sentenced to 25 years but managed to negotiate with the judge, claiming that he has been addicted to computers from an early age and that he was also an active user of alcohol and drugs and suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. The accused hacker, who buried a million dollars in his parents’ backyard, stated that the crimes he committed got out of control because he was unable to curb his curiosity and addiction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heymann insisted that Gonzalez be severely punished to serve as an example to others considering entering the hacking world. Gonzalez’s sentence could also be extended after another judge issues a ruling in a separate case in which he is also charged with stealing tens of millions of credit card numbers. (T. Vi.)