Feds ID hacker who allegedly stole more than 485K credit-card numbers

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March 20, 2000
Web posted at: 8:55 a.m. EST (1355 GMT)

by DeWayne Lehman

(IDG) -- Law enforcement officials said they've tracked down a hacker who they allege stole more than 485,000 credit-card numbers and saved them on a U.S. government agency's Web site, the Secret Service said Friday.

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The theft happened in January 1999 but received little attention.

After the hacker, who authorities say lives outside the U.S., stole the credit-card numbers from an e-commerce Web site, he stored them on a government site, said Jim Mackin, a spokesman for the Secret Service. He wouldn't identify either site.

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Mackin said a Web administrator at the agency's site noticed a large portion of memory had been taken up for no apparent reason and discovered the stolen credit-card numbers soon after they were loaded onto the site.

"The majority were dead (expired) numbers," Mackin said.

According to Mackin, no cases of fraud stemming from the theft have been reported.

Calls to major credit-card companies weren't immediately returned.

Mackin said law enforcement officials have identified the hacker and are working with diplomatic officials to bring him to justice.

Mackin wouldn't identify the country where the hacker is located.

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United States Secret Service

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