Threat Management

Previously convicted Russian hacker pleads guilty to ID theft, fraud charges

Roman Seleznev, a convicted Russian hacker who earlier this year was sentenced to 27 years in prison, pleaded guilty last week to additional federal charges filed against him in the states of Nevada and Georgia.

On Sept. 7, before U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, Seleznev copped to one count of participation in a racketeering enterprise and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, the former charge was pursuant to an indictment returned in Nevada, where Seleznev was accused of participating in cybercrime ring that cost victims at least $50.98 million in losses. The latter charge was filed in Georgia, where the defendant was accused of collaborating with hackers to steal roughly 45.5 million debit card numbers and use them to withdraw over $9.4 million from ATMs around the world.

As part of his plea, Seleznev, 33, admitted that in 2009 he became associated with the internet-based, international criminal ring Carden.su, selling its members stolen credit card data and other personal identifying via an automated website.

Seleznev, aka Track2, Bulba, and Ncux, also admitted working as a "casher" for hackers who in 2008 compromised the systems of an Atlanta-based company that processed credit and debit card transactions for banks. This resulted in the theft of the 45.5 million debit card numbers.

In April 2017, Seleznev was sentenced in a Washington State federal court to 27 years in prison for hacking into point-of-sale computers in order to steal credit card numbers and sell them on the online underground. According to the DOJ, Seleznev's scheme defrauded victims of more than $169 million.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

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