A Russian man has pleaded guilty over record cyber heist

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September 16, 2015 1:55 PM

According to federal prosecutors, Drinkman admitted to illegally accessing computers and conspiring with other defendants, who are currently at large, to commit wire fraud

Vladimir Drinkman pleaded guilty to being a part of the largest hack carried out in the US

According to various media reports, a Russian man, Vladimir Drinkman, 34, has pleaded guilty to involvement in what authorities call the largest computer hacking scheme ever carried out in the United States, compromising over 160 million credit card numbers and causing more than $300 million in losses.

According to federal prosecutors, Drinkman admitted to illegally accessing computers and conspiring with other defendants, who are currently at large, to commit wire fraud before Chief Judge Jerome Simandle of the federal district court in Camden, New Jersey.

Drinkman allegedly worked with four other defendants as far back as 2003 to install “sniffers” designed to comb through and steal data from computer networks of financial companies, payment processors and retailers. They then used an array of computers to then store and sell the data they collected, according to prosecutors.

READ:Major mobile phone retailer hacked, 2.4 million customer accounts compromised

Drinkman faces up to 30 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy count when he is sentenced on January 15, 2016.

"Defendants like Vladimir Drinkman, who have the skills to break into our computer networks and the inclination to do so, pose a cutting edge threat to our economic well-being, our privacy and our national security," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement.

Drinkman has also been previously charged as “Hacker 1” in a 2009 indictment accusing Albert Gonzalez of Miami over his involvement in five corporate data breaches. Gonzalez is currently serving a 20-year federal jail term.

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