follow-up: Secret Service paid TJX hacker $75, 000 cash salary

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/gonzalez-salary


Secret Service Paid TJX Hacker $75,000 a Year
By Kim Zetter
March 22, 2010

Convicted TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez earned $75,000 a year working undercover 
for the U.S. Secret Service, informing on bank card thieves before he was 
arrested in 2008 for running his own multimillion-dollar card-hacking 
operation.

The information comes from one of Gonzalez.s best friends and convicted 
accomplices, Stephen Watt. Watt pleaded guilty last year to creating a sniffer 
program that Gonzalez used to siphon millions of credit and debit card numbers 
from the TJX corporate network while he was working undercover for the 
government.

Watt told Threat Level that Gonzalez was paid in cash to protect his status as 
a confidential informant. The Secret Service said it would not comment on 
payments made to informants. Gonzalez.s attorney did not respond to a call for 
comment.

.It.s a significant amount of money to pay an informant but it.s not an 
outrageous amount to pay if the guy was working full time and delivering good 
results,. says former federal prosecutor Mark Rasch. .It.s probably the only 
thing he was doing . other than hacking into TJX and making millions of 
dollars..

[..]
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