Feds claim victory with extradition of alleged Russian super hacker

The Obama administration is claiming victory after it successfully extradited an alleged Russian super hacker who is purportedly responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate and private losses.

Vladimir Drinkman pleaded not guilty to 11 counts in federal court in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday after he was transferred from the Netherlands to face charges.

{mosads}Officials with the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department and the Secret Service called Drinkman’s alleged hacking scheme the largest ever prosecuted in the United States.

“This case demonstrates our commitment to fulfilling an important part of our integrated mission: that of protecting our nation’s critical financial infrastructure,” acting Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy said in a statement.

“Our success in this investigation and other similar investigations is a credit to our skilled and relentless cyber investigators. Our determination, coupled with our network of foreign law enforcement partners, ensures that our investigative reach can expand beyond the borders of the United States.”

The extradition comes less than a week after President Obama highlighted his cybersecurity agenda at a White House-led summit in Silicon Valley. In opening remarks to the gathering, Obama’s top homeland security adviser warned that the U.S. government is serious about punishing cyber criminals.

“Those who seek to harm us either online or in the physical world need to know that we will find them and we will hold them to account,” Lisa Monaco said at Stanford University.

Drinkman was allegedly part of a hacking ring that breached data systems at NASDAQ, Dow Jones, JetBlue, 7-Eleven, JCPenney and 11 other companies, stealing at least 160 million credit card numbers in the process and selling them on the black market. The resulting fraud cost three corporate victims more than $300 million, a figure that illustrates only a piece of the total crime.

Arrested in the Netherlands in 2012, Drinkman worked with four other individuals to breach and mine data from corporate networks. His particular role was in penetrating network security, while others specialized in collecting personal information and finding buyers for it.

The hacks were allegedly perpetrated through weaknesses in certain databases that allowed fraudsters to inject malware, or malicious code, that created a back door to the systems.