US secret service arrests criminal hacker of cash register systems

The American secret service has arrested a Russian who is allegedly responsible for cracking cash register systems in the US in the period October 2009 and February 2011. He was able to loot and trade credit card data on a large scale.

The suspect, named Roman Valerevich Seleznev, has Russian nationality and is said to have traded stolen credit card details on underground forums under the pseudonym Track2. He was arrested in Guam on Saturday and is suspected of, among other things, theft, hacking and selling stolen credit card information. He would have captured this by cracking cash register systems of American retail chains. However, the US Secret Service would not say whether Track2 was also responsible for a series of high-profile credit card robberies at a number of major retail chains, including Target, last year.

According to the indictment, the suspect checked payment systems at retail chains for any weaknesses. He then installed malware on vulnerable systems. In this way, the Russian would have stolen 32,000 credit card numbers from a catering chain, among others. Other shops were also victims of the criminal. The authorities further state that he made millions of dollars through two forums selling 140,000 credit card details.

If the Russian is convicted, he runs the risk of disappearing behind bars for decades, writes The New York Times. In addition, the man is also suspected in the state of Nevada in a number of extortion cases, which could make his final sentence even more severe.