This Is The Man Security Experts Believe Runs The Black Market For Hacked Target Credit Cards
Brian Krebs, the web security blogger who has been out front on his coverage of the Target credit card hack, has published this photo of a Ukrainian man he says is behind the black market on which many of Target's 40 million credit card numbers are now being sold:
Krebs has tracked the man - whom he identifies as a man called Andrey Hodirevski who uses the screenname "Helkern" - across a series of web sites, social media, and hacker forums. Krebs alleges that Helkern is the operator of a web site called Rescator, on which millions of Target credit card details are now being sold.
Krebs also found this photo of Helkern, in a Range Rover bearing Nazi insignia:
Krebs is not saying that Helkern engineered the Black Friday hack of Target's checkout systems. Rather, he's alleging that Helkern is now selling the numbers from that theft. Krebs has been working with banks whose customersare affected to trace the numbers on Rescator.
"I have no idea if Rescator/Helkern/Andrew was involved in hacking Target, but it's a good bet that he at least knows who was," Krebs told the New York Times.
Krebs says he had a a brief online conversation with Helkern, who offered to pay him $10,000 not to run his story.