Serial Credit Card Thief Indicted

The Justice Department claimed today's indictment of three individuals represent the biggest case of credit card theft ever prosecuted. The one American and two unnamed Russians are charged with stealing over 130 million credit card numbers from all the organizations you've been reading about: Hannaford, 7-Eleven, Heartland Payment Systems, and a couple of others.

In some cases they sold the numbers; other times they used them to buy goods. To me, the big story was the reputed mastermind behind these and other thefts. This guy is already under other indictments for the TJX breach, among others.

Here's the reason I'm bringing this to your attention: these guys targeted their attacks. They actually identified who would be likely to have lots of payment cards, then they systematically went after them.

If this doesn't make you worry, it should.

If this doesn't make you re-think storing PANs electronically, it should.

And...
If this doesn't make you maybe a little more scared of the bad guys and a little less scared of your QSA, it definitely should.