Two Russian nationals have been given prison terms for their roles in a global computer hacking ring that stole more than 160 million credit card numbers and cost its victims hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Justice Department called it one of the biggest data breach schemes in U.S. history.
A federal judge in Camden, New Jersey, on Wednesday sentenced Vladimir Drinkman, 37, to 12 years behind bars and Dmitriy Smilianets, 34, to time served, which totaled more than four years in prison.
Three suspected co-conspirators are still at large.
"These defendants operated at the highest levels of illegal hacking and trafficking of stolen identities," First Assistant U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick of the District of New Jersey said. "Perpetrators of some of the largest data breaches in history, these defendants posed a real threat to our economy, privacy, and national security and cannot be tolerated."
U.S. prosecutors accused the five defendants of stealing names, passwords, and credit and debit card numbers from corporate computer networks and selling that information to others around the world.
Those who bought the stolen information encoded it on magnetic strips on plastic cards and used the cards in automated tellers and other devices to buy goods and services.
The Justice Department said corporations and consumers lost hundreds of millions of dollars. They said the losses suffered by those whose identities had been stolen were "immeasurable."
