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Hacking Godfather 'Maksik' Sentenced to 30 Years by Turkish Court

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

A Ukrainian cybercrime lord linked to nearly every major breach of U.S. retail networks in the past four years was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison by a Turkish court. His sentence was on unrelated charges of hacking banks in that country, according to reports.

Maksym Yastremski is alleged to be "Maksik," well-known in the underground as a top online seller of stolen credit and debit card information. In a U.S. indictment unsealed in August, prosecutors alleged Yastremski earned more than $11 million selling stolen credit and debit card numbers and magstripe swipes from 2004 to 2006 alone.

Yastremski allegedly worked with Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez of Miami, who served as Maksik's stateside hacker. Gonzalez and two other Miami men allegedly hacked into vulnerable wireless networks at TJX and other companies, where they'd plant packet sniffers to scoop up at least 40 million credit and debit cards. TJX has spent $130 million coping with the aftermath of the intrusion. Other victims include BJ's Wholesale Club, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21, DSW and OfficeMax.

Turkish police arrested Yastremski while he was on vacation in July 2007. He was found guilty of hacking into the computer systems of 12 Turkish banks.

In addition to the gargantuan prison term, the court also reportedly fined Yastremski $23,200, The Registerreports.

See Also:

• Fed Blotter: New York Coder Charged With Helping TJ Maxx Hacker
• Indicted Federal Informant Allegedly Strong-Armed Hacker Into Caper That Drew 9-Year Sentence
• Feds Charge 11 in Breaches at TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, DSW, Others ...
• TJX Fires Employee for Disclosing Security Problems
• Data Breach Will Cost TJX $1.7B, Security Firm Estimates
• International Hackers Indicted for Sniffing Credit Cards From Dave & Buster's

Full post as published by Threat Level on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).