Hacker Cops to Role in $400M ID-Theft Ring

A 23-year-old man with an eighth-grade education pleaded guilty yesterday to a role in stealing more than $400 million via identity theft, the Boston Globe reports. Damon Patrick Tooey was part of an 11-man ring, with members from China to the Ukraine, which brought laptops into retail stores like Barnes & Noble to steal credit-card data from their poorly secured networks.

The gang’s alleged ringleader pleaded not guilty to similar charges, but Toey said authorities “have enough, other than what I'm pleading guilty to” and could “make it a lot worse.” Toey’s defense team and prosecutors haven’t yet agreed on how much Toey personally stole, a factor that would affect his sentence. Technically, he could face 30 years in prison. (More hackers stories.)