Worst Person of the Week: Albert Gonzalez, TJX Hacker

A couple of weeks ago we ran a series of posts about Todd Davis, Lifelock CEO being the “worst person” because he was a victim of identity theft (due to the reckless advertising campaign where his social security number was splashed all over billboards) and he lied about being a victim. Needless to calling Davis the “worst person” created a bit of controversy — especially in a few Linked-In group discussions. The response to these posts inspired us to develop a weekly post that is dedicated to the “worst person” in the identity theft world. As you can imagine, there is no shortage of bad guys out there for us to cover.

So, for this week’s post, we decided to aim high and focus on the most notorious hacker to date: Albert Gonzalez, the convicted TJX hacker who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in March for leading a gang of cyberthieves who stole more than 90 million credit and debit card numbers from TJX and other retailers.

We chose Gonzalez not just for his notoriety, but because of an article recently published by Rolling Stone magazine called “Hackers Gone Wild,” which dives deep into Gonzalez’s world prior to him being arrested. What shocked us most about the story is how Gonzalez lived a drug-fueled lifestyle that included renting $5,000 a night duplexes in Miami. He lived a lifestyle that would have made Keith Richards look tame, all on funded by stolen credit cards. Thankfully there is justice in the world and the best part of the article is when it all comes crashing down on him.

So, this week’s “Worst Person of the Week” post goes out to Albert Gonzalez. The 20 year sentence may not be enough in our opinion.