Internet Get Rich Quick or 20 years in Prison

With so many get rich quick schemes on the internet – it’s a wonder that more of these stories are not out and about.  Albert Gonzales will have seen most of his life go by before he is eligible to get out of prison. He will be 48 years old.

Gonzalez, who once called  his criminal enterprise “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” apparantly did not factor in the Get Rich or Go to Jail slogan that he should have used instead. He was involved with two other hackers who got into the credit card cookie jar causing damage of over $130 million to Heartland and Hannaford companies.

According to Wired.com the 28 year old hacker along with other accomplices got into JC Penny, 7/11 and others by using a mysql injection technique, which basically means he hacked the database that is holding all the credit card numbers.

the hackers installed back doors to provide them with continued access. They tested their malware against 20 different antivirus programs to make sure they wouldn’t be detected, and also programmed the malware to erase evidence from the hacked networks to avoid forensic detection.

Although they hacked in 2007, Heartland discovered the hackers on its network only in January 2009

This just goes to show people that Crime may pay in the beginning, but it certainly doesn’t pay overall.