A hacker convicted of stealing credit and debit card numbers says the government authorized his criminal activity. Albert Gonzalez was given a twenty-year sentence for stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers. In an appeal, Gonzalez says he was working for the Secret Service at the time, and is seeking to rescind his prior guilty pleas. Wired magazine reports, the Secret Service has acknowledged that Gonzalez was an informant, but that he was simultaneously running a criminal operation.

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