The "Threat Level" blog on "Wired Magazine" reports that Ehud Tenenbaum, aka “The Analyzer,” pleaded guilty in New York last week to a single count of bank-card fraud for his role in a sophisticated computer-hacking scheme that federal officials say scored $10 million from US banks. He was arrested in Canada last year.
Tenenbaum, 29, acquired his hacker handle “The Analyzer,” when he was arrested in 1998 at the age of 19, along with several other Israelis and two California teens in one of the first high-profile hacker cases that made international news.
Tenenbaum is set to be sentenced November 19, and he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
"Threat Level" reports that Tanenbaum was residing France and entered Canada in early 2008 on visitor’s permit when police in Calgary arrested him last August. He and three alleged accomplices were charged with hacking into Direct Cash Management, a Calgary company that distributes prepaid debit and credit cards. A Canadian court set bail at C$30,000, but before he could be released from jail, US authorities swooped in with a provisional warrant to retain him in custody while they pursued an indictment and extradition.
Prosecutors alleged in an extradition affidavit that Tenenbaum hacked into two US banks, a credit and debit-card distribution company and a payment processor, in what they called a global “cash-out” conspiracy. But he was only charged with one count of conspiracy to commit access-device fraud and one count of access-device fraud.
According to the affidavit, in October 2007, the US Secret Service began investigating “an international conspiracy” to hack into computer networks of US financial institutions and other businesses. As part of that investigation, agents examined network intrusions that occurred in January and February 2008 at OmniAmerican Credit Union, based in Fort Worth, Texas, and Global Cash Card of Irvine, California, a distributor of prepaid debit cards used primarily for payroll payments.
The Analyzer’s mother, Malka Tenenbaum, told "Threat Level" from Israel that she had no idea her son had pleaded guilty. “I don’t know what to think,” she said. “I hope that all is OK."
Malka Tenenbaum told "Threat Level" in a previous conversation that she believed the United States was harboring a decade-old grudge against her son, and was pursuing him now because authorities here weren’t able to prosecute him previously.
Israeli law enforcement opted to prosecute Tenenbaum instead of extraditing him to the US to face charges. He was eventually sentenced in 2001 to six months of community service in Israel. By then, he was working as a computer-security consultant.
At the time of the arrest, Calgary Police detective Darren Hafner said, “I think he’s probably been getting away with stuff for 10 years. We haven’t seen or heard from him since the Pentagon attack. But these guys tend to get this ‘cops can’t touch me attitude’ and then they get sloppy like any criminal in any type of crime."
Investigators in the hacking cases in the US wiretapped correspondence and found communications that allegedly occurred between Tenenbaum - using the e-mail address Analyzer22@hotmail.com - and other known hackers discussing the breaches into the four US institutions, “as well as many other U.S. and foreign financial institutions."
Tenenbaum and his accomplices allegedly stole about $1.5 million from Canadian banks, including Direct Cash Management, by grabbed credit and debit-card numbers that were then used by thieves in several countries to withdraw more than $1 million from ATMs. Tenenbaum is also accused of hacking into 1st Source Bank in Indiana, and at Florida-based Symmetrex, a prepaid-debit-card processor.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 26, 2009
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