Vladimir Drinkman, a Russian man charged for his alleged involvement in the 2009 Heartland Payment Systems breach, may now be forced to face the U.S. judicial system.
The alleged hacker was arrested in June 2012 in the Netherlands, and now a Tuesday AP article revealed that Dutch minister Ivo Opstelten has approved Drinkman's extradition to the U.S.
In April, the U.S. and Russia each filed competing extradition requests for Drinkman, who is suspected of helping to target payment processor Heartland, along with Visa, JetBlue Airways, 7-Eleven, J.C. Penney, and other companies.
Drinkman is among five men accused of participating in a hacking ring that stole over 160 million card numbers from numerous retailers and organizations. The Russian hacking group was also believed to be behind a major payment card breach at Neiman Marcus, according to an April Bloomberg Businessweek report.
