5 Charged in Massive Hacking of U.S. Businesses

Four Russian nationals and a Ukrainian have been charged with running a sophisticated hacking organization that over seven years penetrated computer networks of more than a dozen major American and international corporations.

Indictments were announced Thursday in Newark, N.J., where the U.S. attorney called it the largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.

The hackers conservatively acquired more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers and sold them to resellers around the world.

Losses to consumers and the corporations are put in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Victims included the NASDAQ, 7-Eleven Inc., Heartland Payment Systems Inc., French retailer Carrefour S.A. and the Belgium bank Dexia Bank Belgium.

The defendants are Russians Vladimir Drinkman, Aleksander Kalinin, Roman Kotov and Dmitriy Smilianets, and Ukrainian Mikhail Rytikov.