Nasdaq computers the target of Russian hackers, say US prosecutors
Hackers from Russia and the Ukraine stole 160 million credit card numbers, as well as gained access to main servers in stock exchange
A prolific gang of hackers stole and sold 160 million credit card numbers from more than a dozen firms, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, US federal prosecutors charged.
But one company they hacked had nothing to do with credit cards or bank accounts: Nasdaq.
While they penetrated the main servers supporting Nasdaq's trading operations, it appears they caused limited damage. However, the attack raised the prospect that hackers could be getting closer to the infrastructure that supports billions of dollars of trades each hour.
The credit card scheme was run by four Russian nationals and a Ukrainian, said Paul Fishman, the US attorney for the District of New Jersey.
The victims in the scheme, which prosecutors said ran from 2005 until last year, included J.C. Penney, 7-Eleven, Heartland Payment Systems - a credit and debit processing company - and French retailer Carrefour.
The defendants were identified as Vladimir Drinkman, Alexander Kalinin, Roman Kotov and Dmitry Smilianets of Russia and Mikhail Rytikov of Ukraine. Smilianets and Drinkman were arrested in the Netherlands last year. Smilianets has been extradited to the US, where he is expected to make his first court appearance next week. The other three are at large.