Israeli hacker pleads guilty to stealing $10m from U.S. banks

Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum pleaded guilty in a New York court last week to one count of bank-card fraud for his part in a hacking scheme that U.S. officials say netted some $10 million from American banks, technology news Web site Wired.com reported.

Tenenbaum, 29, who is also known as "the analyzer," was arrested in Canada last year along with three other hackers for allegedly stealing about $1.5 million from Canadian banks. But he was put on trial in the U.S. after officials there filed a request to have him extradited.

Prosecutors alleged that Tenenbaum hacked into two U.S. banks, a credit- and debit-card distribution company and a payment processor, Wired.com reported. But he was only charged with one count of conspiracy to commit access-device fraud and one count of access-device fraud.

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"The analyzer" first became known in 1998, when he was arrested at age 19 along with several other Israelis and two California teens after hacking into computers belonging to NASA, The Pentagon and the Knesset.

Tenenbaum was eventually sentenced in 2001 to six months of community service in Israel, after Israeli law enforcement prosecuted him instead of extraditing him to the United States.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who was serving his first term as prime minister when Tenenbaum was arrested, called Tenenbaum "damn good," but also "very dangerous, too," according to Wired.com.

 

By Haaretz Service

26/08/2009