According to the US Department of Justice, a former informant for the US Secret Service, the 28-year-old Albert Gonzalez, has been charged with the biggest-ever credit and debit card data theft in the country; whereby he stole over 130 million accounts, aided by two co-conspirators!

As per the prosecutors, Gonzalez, a Miami, Florida, man who was earlier accused for stealing 40 million accounts, has set a record of sorts for identity theft by hacking into retail networks. Though as a government informant, Gonzalez helped in tracking hackers; it was later found discovered by the agency that he had links with criminals, to whom he passed on information about investigations since October 2006.

Going by the accusations, Gonzalez and his two accomplices - who have been identified only as 'Hacker 1' and 'Hacker 2,' living "in or near Russia" - hacked into the computer networks of companies that supported leading US retail and financial organizations and stole data, using complicated hacking techniques to circumnavigate firewalls.

Gonzalez targeted customers of the Texas-based convenience store biggie 7-Eleven; Maine-based supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers; and New Jersey-based card payment processor, Heartland Payment Systems.

Charged with 'conspiracy' and 'wire fraud conspiracy,' Gonzalez - who operated online as 'segvec,' 'soupnazi' and 'j4guar17' - if convicted, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison; and a fine of $250,000 for each charge.