TJX

Albert Gonzalez, the computer hacker behind one of the largest known identity fraud cases in U.S. history, was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in federal prison.

Gonzalez, a 28-year-old college dropout and Secret Service informant known as "soupnazi," had confessed to stealing millions of credit card and debit card numbers from major U.S. retail chains, including T.J.Maxx, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Barnes & Noble.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston sentenced Gonzalez to the middle of expected prison sentences for charges filed in Massachusetts and New York, which ranged from … Read more

A Miami hacker who had already pleaded guilty to computer fraud and identity theft for breaches at retailers T.J.Maxx, OfficeMax, and many other merchants, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to similar charges related to breaches at Heartland Payment Systems, 7-11, Hannaford Brothers supermarkets, and two other companies.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, reiterated terms of a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Boston. A week earlier, co-conspirator Stephen Watt of New York, appeared in that same court and was ordered to serve two years in prison and pay $171.5 million in restitution for developing a sniffing program used … Read more

A 28-year-old Miami man who made millions breaking into computer networks and stealing credit card numbers pleaded guilty on Friday and agreed to forfeit more than $2.7 million in restitution, as well as a condo, jewelry, and a car.

Albert Gonzalez, a former federal government informant and the alleged ringleader of one of the largest known identity theft cases in U.S. history, pleaded guilty as expected to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft related to theft of credit and debit card data from TJX Companies (owner of T.J.… Read more

TJX stores, including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, are holding a one-day 15-percent-off sale on Thursday as a way to show appreciation for customers after a data breach at the company.

TJX disclosed in 2007 that 45.7 million customer accounts were compromised

"TJX has chosen to hold a previously planned, one-time Customer Appreciation Day to express our appreciation to customers for their continued support and patronage following the criminal attack(s) announced on our computer systems two years ago," TJX spokeswoman Sherry Lang said in a statement. "TJX remains committed to providing our customers a safe … Read more

A second criminal hacker accused of involvement in the massive data breach targeted at T.J. Maxx's parent company, one of the largest security breaches to date, reportedly pleaded guilty on Monday.

As part of a plea bargaining arrangement Christopher Scott, 25, of Miami, has admitted to computer hacking, access device fraud, and identity theft, according to the Associated Press. He could face a sentence of up to 22 years in jail and a fine of up to $1 million for his crimes.

The plea comes almost two weeks after Damon Patrick Toey pleaded guilty to his role. The … Read more

All companies have computer problems, how they deal with them separates the men from the boys.

Netflix

When I was away from home recently for an extended period of time, I tried to change the shipping address on my Netflix account. What should have been trivial became a problem because the Netflix web site made assumptions about the format of the address that didn't apply in my case. Every time I entered the address, their system reformatted it. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to enter the correct address, so I contacted someone at … Read more

On the surface, it looks like we actually made some improvements in protecting private data in 2007. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the number of publicly disclosed data breaches actually decreased, from 346 incidents in 2006 to 310 in 2007. Unfortunately, there are still more clouds than sunshine. In 2007, the 310 data breach incidents resulted in a total of 162 million records exposed, more than three times as many as in 2006 (when there were about 50 million).

Here's another frightening data point: Five of the 10 biggest data breaches occurred in 2007, including the record setter. … Read more

I just finished watching Leslie Stahl do a piece called "Hi-Tech Heist" on 60 Minutes in which she describes the theft of credit card and other personal information from TJX. These are a couple quick Defensive Computing thoughts on the subject.

I can't imagine using a credit card at T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, Bob's Stores or any of the other stores owned by TJX. In the 60 Minutes piece, the focus was on the poor Wi-Fi security and keeping sensitive customer information for much too long. But, after the hackers got into the Wi-Fi network, … Read more

Editors' note: This blog initially misstated the number of years of credit monitoring that TJX is offering in the proposed settlement. It is offering three years, or two additional years if the customer is already signed up for a credit monitoring service.

The TJX Companies announced on Friday a yet-to-be-finalized settlement for several class action suits resulting from various data breaches over the last few years.

TJX, which operates such discount retail chains as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls in the U.S. and Winners and HomeSense stores in Canada, is offering claimants three years of credit monitoring (or two … Read more