U.S. District Judge Patti Saris sentenced convicted computer hacker Albert Gonzalez to 20 years in prison for stealing 40 million debit and credit card numbers that resulted in an economic loss of US$200 million. The sentence actually closes what was the largest credit and debit card theft in U.S. banking history.

Gonzalez might have been sentenced to 35 years for 19 federal counts which were filed in two separate courts, to which he pled guilty over the summer. The charges were accrued over the course of a decade-long spree, during which he also served as an informant to the Secret Service.

Gonzalez pled guilty to hacking into the customer accounts of OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, TJ Maxx, BJs Wholesale Club, and other retailers which handled the credit card transactions for these and other retailers, via Heartland Payment. The scoundrel also targeted stores by hacking into their systems through their respective wireless networks, which he infiltrated with a laptop from a nearby location.

Tom Patterson a chief security officer for Magtek had this to say:

“Catching these criminals can be difficult — especially when they are operating overseas — so when the authorities do, it is good to see the justice system pass down an appropriate punishment…this was a sophisticated organized crime that cost the financial service companies and retailers a lot of money.”