Second TJX hacker pleads guilty

Rob Stringer

Two of the eleven people charged last month for their alleged involvement in the largest hacking and identity theft case prosecuted so far by the Department of Justice, have now pleaded guilty.

Just two weeks after Damon Patrick Toey admitted to the hack, 25 year old Christopher Scott of Miami, has followed suit as part of a plea-bargaining arrangement.

They were accused of helping to steal over 45 million identities and accounts from TJX, parent company of the UK’s TK Maxx, and Marshall’s in the US.

It is thought that the hackers took advantage of inadequately protected Wi-Fi networks, often using SQL injection attacks to find flaws in retailers’ networks, before putting the stolen account numbers up for sale to criminal third parties.

Over a period of almost five years, they were able to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at a time from foreign ATM machines, putting TJX and other retailers millions of dollars out in compensation and administration costs.

Of the eleven accused, three of the defendants were US citizens, three were Ukranian, two were from the People’s Republic of China, one was Estonian and one was from Belarus. The final defendant operated through an online alias.

The alleged leader, Albert “Segvec” Gonzalez, is thought to be a former secret service informer, and has pleaded not guilty to the hacking charges.

Toey was charged with unlawful access to computers, access device fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.
If convicted, he may face the confiscation of equipment including three Sony Vaio laptops and £5300 in cash.

Scott has admitted to computer hacking, access device fraud and identity theft, according to the Associated Press, and could face a sentence of up to 22 years in jail and a fine of up to $1m (£538 000).

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