ALIASES: Александр Сергеевич Калинин, “Grig," “g,” “smoker”
DOB: December 22, 1986
NATIONALITY: Russia
CITIZENSHIP: Russia
HEIGHT: 5’10”
WEIGHT: 175 lbs
HAIR COLOR: Brown
EYE COLOR: Brown
U.S. SECRET SERVICE FIELD OFFICE: Newark
CASE SUMMARY
On August 17, 2009, the District of New Jersey charged Alexander Sergeevich Kalinin – listed in the indictment as “Hacker 1” – and others in connection with allegations of hacking into the computer networks of corporate victims and deploying malware on those networks. The purpose of these intrusions was to steal credit and debit card numbers and corresponding card data from those networks and to sell this information to other co-conspirators for profit.
Furthermore, on July 25, 2013, the District of New Jersey unsealed a second set of charges against Kalinin for his alleged involvement in the operation of a prolific hacking organization that was responsible for several of the largest known data breaches. Specifically, the indictment in this matter alleges that, between at least August 2005 through on or about July 2012, Kalinin and his co-conspirators penetrated the secure computer networks of several of the largest payment processing companies, retailers, and financial institutions in the world, and stole the personal identifying information of others. As part of these schemes, Kalinin specialized in penetrating and deploying malware on victim networks in order to extract credit and debit card numbers and sell this data to other co-conspirators.
Kalinin and his co-conspirators unlawfully acquired over 160 million credit card numbers as a result of their hacking activities. After acquiring this information, which the defendants referred to as "dumps" – hacker shorthand for card numbers and associated data – Kalinin and his co-conspirators sold the dumps to "dumps resellers" around the world, who, in turn, sold them either through online forums or directly to other individuals and organizations. As a result of this conduct, financial institutions, credit card companies, and consumers suffered hundreds of millions in losses, including losses in excess of $300 million by just three corporate victims, and immeasurable losses to the identity theft victims due to the costs associated with stolen identities and fraudulent charges.
The prosecution is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
Relevant Links
- Indictment (1)
- Indictment (2)
The charges and allegations contained in the indictments are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
If you have information regarding this individual, please contact the U.S. Secret Service at MostWanted@usss.dhs.gov.