A Miami man and two unidentified computer hackers were charged with stealing 130 million credit and debit card numbers in what the Justice Department said was the largest such prosecution in U.S. history.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, and two hackers living “in or near Russia” were indicted today by a federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey, for the theft of data from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., 7-Eleven Inc., Delhaize Group’s Hannaford Brothers Co. and two identified national retailers.

The hackers stole 130 million card numbers from Heartland, a bank-card payment processor, starting in December 2007, by using malicious computer software, according to the 14-page indictment. An undetermined number of card numbers were stolen from 7-Eleven and 4.2 million from Hannaford, a regional supermarket chain, according to the indictment.

“This investigation marks the continued success of law enforcement in tracking down cutting edge hacking schemes committed by hackers working together across the globe,” acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said in a statement.

(Source: Bloomberg.com)