Kind of amazing: "A former government informant known online as 'soupnazi' stole information from 130 million credit and debit card accounts in what federal prosecutors are calling the largest case of identity theft yet. Prosecutors said Monday that Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami broke his own record for identity theft, though his exploits ended when he went to jail on charges stemming from an earlier case involving 40 million accounts."

Gonzalez, whose targets in this case included 7-11, a credit-card processing company, and a supermarket chain, was already in jail awaiting trial for a similar attempt to hack into the system of Dave & Buster's. He had previous success in breaching the files of retailers like Sports Authority, T.J. Maxx, Office Max, and Barnes & Noble. But it hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine for this go-getter:

The indictment, interviews and recent court documents in the cases pending against Mr. Gonzalez paint him as a rising star in the cyber underground. He launched what he called "operation get rich or die tryin," targeting Fortune 500 companies with his data-theft operations, according to a sentencing memo filed in federal district court in Massachusetts in the TJ Maxx matter. These documents say he threw himself a $75,000 birthday party and at one point lamented he had to count more than $340,000 by hand because his money counter had broken.

Don't you just hate when that happens? That's why I always use plastic. So much more convenient.