An American hacker, who is a former federal informant and a member of a driving force behind a large case of identity theft in the history of the United States, pleaded guilty after a deal with prosecutors Friday.

Twenty-eight year old Albert Gonzales of Miami admitted to invading computer systems of large retail companies such as Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, BJ's Wholesale Club, Boston Market, OfficeMax and TJX Cos. Federal authorities claimed that millions of debts and credit card numbers were hacked from the said retailers.

Albert Gonzales’ guilty pleas at a Boston’s US District Court included computer fraud, 19 counts of conspiracy, access device fraud, identity theft and wire fraud. Gonzales was also guilty of one count of conspiracy at an indictment charging in New York for committing wire fraud hacks into the restaurant chain, Dave & Buster’s.

Under the plea agreements, Gonzales would be facing the Massachusetts case with 15 to 25 years, and the New York case with at least 20 years imprisonment. Gonzales’ sentences would run concurrently, and if he would be convicted with all the charges and have maximum sentence, he could be imprisoned for several hundreds of years.

Albert Gonzales’ sentencing is scheduled on 8 December. In addition, federal authorities claimed that he was a ringleader of an unknown group that is focused on targeting large retail companies.

Rene Palomino, Gonzales’ attorney, said that his client was “extremely remorseful”.

Google Inc., the No. 1 Web search company in the world, is investing on important developments in Internet video ads as investors begin to target consumers interactively, said a senior executive on Thursday.

“The one big shift in the next three to five years is going to be video advertising”, declared Nikesh Arora, head of Google’s global marketing operations and development, during the Reuters Global Media Summit held in New York.

“If you believe there's a big consumer shift going on, the advertising dollars will have to follow”, he said, pertaining to the rising popularity of viewing online videos.

Google made a huge bet on Web videos, with its YouTube acquisition for $1.65 billion in 2006. It recently said that YouTube will turn into a profitable industry in the near future and the company is aggressively working to enhance the site’s capacity to generate revenues.

The Web search giant said that it monetized over one billion views per week in YouTube during the third quarter.

Arora stated that marketers are still discovering how to capitalise on the Internet video sensation, with various companies shifting TV ads to the Internet.

“These spots do not exploit or leverage any of the values of the Internet. It's not interactive, it's just a video. I can't click on it, I can't interact with it”, he stated.

Nevertheless, he added that the format of ad videos online will certainly improve and evolve, making it a more interactive way for companies to advertise their products.