The Russian teenager thought to be behind the mega data breach that hit Target Corp. might be misidentified, a security analyst has pointed out.
Cyber security firm, IntelCrawler had named 17-year-old Sergey Tarasov as the teenager behind the massive breach in which credit card data of around 110 million consumers was compromised.
However, updating its report on the breach, the firm said that Tarasov might not be the original author of the software code used for the breach but it still accused the teenager of playing a role in the hack attack, Fox News reports.
Security analyst Brian Krebs said that the security firm has changed their version of the events, publishing data that links another Russian VK profile to the affair, Rinat Shabayev.
IntelCrawler said that the person behind the nickname "ree[4]", considered to have launched the Target breach, is Rinat Shibaev, working closely with Sergey Tarasov, who was acting as his technical support together with several other members, having roots in St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, teenager Tarasov has fought back against IntelCrawler's accusations in various Russian media outlets and has claimed that he does not have the necessary education needed to create the virus and while he does write codes, he insisted doing so for personal use.
Tarasov has also insisted that he has no connection to Shabayev or St. Petersburg and has lived in Novosibirsk his entire life, the report added.