Two people have been accused of carrying out what is thought to be the largest data breach in US history, with one billion email addresses stolen alongside more confidential data.
Between 2009 and 2012, the men, one of whom is pleading guilty to the charges, allegedly hacked into at least eight email service providers, stealing names and email addresses before sending spam messages to users, resulting in sales of $2 million, the US Department of Justice has revealed.
In addition to the two Vietnamese citizens accused, a Canadian has also been charged for conspiring to launder the money made as a result of the hack.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell said: "These men... are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the internet. The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars by stealing over a billion email addresses from email service providers."
The scheme involved the men receiving commission on sales from websites users were directed to through the spam emails. These emails were sent to tens of millions of customers whose details were stolen.
"This case reflects the cutting-edge problems posed by today's cybercrime cases, where the hackers didn't target just a single company; they infiltrated most of the country's email distribution firms," Acting US Attorney John A. Horn added.
"The scope of the intrusion is unnerving, in that the hackers didn't stop after stealing the companies' proprietary data they then hijacked the companies' own distribution platforms to send out bulk emails and reaped the profits from email traffic directed to specific websites."
