Two plead guilty in data security breach

Two men have plead guilty and a third man is expected to plead guilty to stealing credit and debit card data using devices at Stop & Shop supermarket checkout counters. A case is pending against a fourth man in connection with the theft.

Arman Ter-Esayan and Gevork Baltadjian pleaded guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to traffic in unauthorised access devices. A third suspect, Arutyun Shatarevyan has also agreed to plead guilty, according to an Associated Press report. The Rhode Island State Police published photos of the men allegedly entering the supermarket to retrieve the devices.

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The men face a maximum sentence of five years for the conspiracy charges and identity theft carries up to two years in prison.

Quincy, Massachusetts-based supermarket chain Stop & Shop acknowledged in February that thieves stole account and personal identification numbers from customers' credit and debit cards at two Rhode Island locations by tampering with checkout-lane computers.

Customer information was stolen from Stop & Shop stores in Coventry and in Cranston, and there's suspicion that stores in Bristol, Providence, Warwick, and Seekonk were affected, according to an announcement on its Web site. There's no evidence yet of fraudulent debit or credit card activity in connection with the security breach.

It is unclear how many customers were affected by the thefts and whether there has been any fraudulent activity connected to the stolen data.