Pointer: TJX Hacker Was Awash in Cash; His Penniless Coder Faces Prison
Kim Zetter has a nice human-interest piece over on Threat Level about those involved in the TJX hack:
Accused TJX hacker kingpin Albert Gonzalez called his credit card theft ring “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin.”
He spent $75,000 on a birthday party for himself and once complained that he had to manually count $340,000 in pilfered $20 bills because his counting machine broke. But while Gonzalez apparently lived high off ill-gotten gains, a programmer who claims he earned nothing from the scheme sits broke and unemployed, his career in shambles, while awaiting sentencing for a piece of software he crafted for his friend.
Read more on Threat Level.