Hacker Gonzalez gets 20 years for Heartland breach

The prison term will run concurrently with 20-year terms imposed in two other hacking cases Thursday

Hacker Albert Gonzalez, who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 20 years in prison.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock was for Gonzalez's role in a hacking ring that broke into computer networks of Heartland Payment Systems, which processed credit and debit card transactions for Visa and American Express, Hannaford Supermarkets and 7-Eleven.

"I am guilty of these crimes ... I accept full responsibility for these actions," Gonzalez said at the sentencing. "I understand that the road to redemption is going to be long for me."

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Hacker Albert Gonzalez, who participated in a cybercrime ring that stole tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 20 years in prison.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock was for Gonzalez's role in a hacking ring that broke into computer networks of Heartland Payment Systems, which processed credit and debit card transactions for Visa and American Express, Hannaford Supermarkets and 7-Eleven.

"I am guilty of these crimes ... I accept full responsibility for these actions," Gonzalez said at the sentencing. "I understand that the road to redemption is going to be long for me."

The sentence will run concurrently with two other 20-year concurrent sentences meted out Thursday, also in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by a different federal judge, Patti B. Saris. Gonzalez pleaded guilty in all three cases last December, with the U.S. Department of Justice agreeing to seek no more than 25 years in prison in each case, all to run concurrently.

(More to come.)

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.