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Inside the Hack; Boehner Casts Doubt on Immigration Reform; Leno Says Goodbye to "Tonight Show"

Aired February 07, 2014 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We are less than an hour away from the start of the opening ceremony at the Olympics. But the games have already begun. Qualifying rounds took place Thursday in teen figure skating, slope style snowboarding and women's freestyle skiing mobiles. All of them went off without a hitch. The athletes say they are focusing on the games and not on the terror threats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WISE, U.S. HALFPIPE TEAM: I don't think anybody up here has felt any danger since we have been here. So we're pretty confident that we're going to be able to just focus on our skiing and competing and not let those outside influences has really bother or worry us. It's not something that I am really focused on and I think I could say the same for the rest of my teammates up here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: He looks so excited, doesn't he? Kyle Carr is one of those American athletes in Sochi. He's a speed skater. He is competing in his first Olympics. We had his mom on with us a couple of weeks ago. And she told us she was not going to allow terrorist to steal her joy. Lisa is back with us this morning before she heads off to Sochi. Welcome.

LISA CERVANTES, MOTHER OF SPEED SKATER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So when do you leave?

CERVANTES: Monday.

COSTELLO: Monday.

CERVANTES: Yes, Monday at 1:00 in the afternoon. We fly up to Chicago. And then, catch our flight to London. And then from London to Moscow and Moscow into Sochi.

COSTELLO: And you're bringing your daughter, still? CERVANTES: Yes still bringing my daughter.

COSTELLO: But not your toothpaste.

CERVANTES: Not my toothpaste. That's breath mints I guess will get us through this trip.

COSTELLO: There will be no brushing your teeth in between flights.

CERVANTES: No, no.

COSTELLO: So when that terror threat came out and you heard that toothpaste might pose a danger, what went through your mind?

CERVANTES: Really, we are doing this. I mean and I called a pilot friend of mine and said, so, how concerned am I?

And he said you're going to Sochi and you're going to have a good time and don't even think about it.

COSTELLO: So how is your son doing? I know you talked to him this morning.

CERVANTES: Yes he is doing great. Excited, press releases, interviews, training. You've got to fit the training in. But he is doing great. And he is embracing it and he's enjoying every moment.

COSTELLO: So what are his accommodations like? Because we hear so many bad things about what's going down in Russia.

CERVANTES: I texted him about that. And I was like, so this is what I'm hearing. And he was like, you know what, mom, ignore it really. He said his door is fine. It's got a lock on it. It's you know there are -- there's paint on the walls. Yes he said that he -- and even what was it, the big hacking thing.

COSTELLO: Oh yes.

CERVANTES: He said that he's had no problems. I mean I have been in communication with him a lot. And he's had no problems. And with that, I think you have to be smart. You don't want to go over there and start accessing all your bank information on your laptop and that kind of thing.

COSTELLO: True.

CERVANTES: But other than that, it is fine.

COSTELLO: It's sounding like you are not concerned at all?

CERVANTES: No.

COSTELLO: You're not.

CERVANTES: I am really not. I am really, truly, completely at peace about the whole trip. COSTELLO: Why? I mean how did you arrive at this?

CERVANTES: I -- honestly, it's a God thing. It really is. I have such a prayer team that has surrounded me. And I've really just -- that's what it is. I'm just totally at peace.

COSTELLO: Well and I think that's important for your son. Right? Because he's got to focus all of his attention on performing in his sport, right.

CERVANTES: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Or he is going to fail right.

CERVANTES: Right you're absolutely right. And for -- to see how relaxed he is too. And he would be the first one to tell us. You know I mean his little sister is going with me. He would be the first one to say I don't think this is a good idea. And he also, his fiancee is flying out today. So you know he would be voicing some kind of concern. And it's just not you know.

COSTELLO: Well Lisa, I want you to stay in touch with us. We'll be watching Kyle. I'm very excited.

CERVANTES: Yes.

COSTELLO: And thanks for stopping in again. And good luck on that flight.

CERVANTES: Thank you. Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM. CNN goes inside the hack, an exclusive investigation into the world of cybercrime. Drew Griffin has that story. Good morning Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

This is the story of one tech geek in the Ukraine that stole 40 million credit cards. How he did it and how his trust in one person got him caught.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Starting next year, credit cards are ditching signatures for purpose, purchases rather and asking customers to use pin numbers exactly like you do when you use your debit card. Banks hope that added security of a pin number will help cut down the credit card fraud. Visa and MasterCard say they hope to rollout the new system by October of 2015.

For many consumers, added security on credit cards cannot come soon enough from cyberhack attacks at Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels, millions of shoppers across the U.S. have had their privacy and their financial information compromised.

But who is taking that information and what are they doing with it? Drew Griffin joins us with an exclusive CNN investigation. Good morning.

GRIFFIN: Good morning Carol. From the time your credit number is swiped right until it goes all the way across the world and back again, it has been bought and sold in a criminal network most people don't even realize until after the fact, before the banks even know it, your credit is being used somewhere else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN (voice over): Don't let this baby face fool you if you want to know who is behind the hacking, stealing and selling of your credit cards. Maksym Yastremskiy of the Ukraine is about as good an example as you can find.

Up until the recent Target store breach, Maksik as he was called the king of the hill, the most prolific credit card trafficker in the world, organizing and operating a worldwide credit theft ring that hacked into nine major retailers, stealing and then selling the data for more than 40 million credit cards. Data that would be sold to other criminals who then would go on buying sprees, they would sell whatever they bought with your stolen credit and turn it into crash.

This criminal was one of them. He knew the ins and outs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if the person had good credit, you could potentially take $25,000 from a particular credit card.

GRIFFIN: It was relatively easy. Perfect-looking fake credit cards bought on line machines doing code and emboss credit card bought online. And also available online, freshly stolen credit card information. That this cybercriminal was buying straight from a baby faced Ukrainian tech geek.

(on camera): You have the material to make the cards. You have the plastic to make the cards and then you got the data to actually make the physical cards real and active just to be clear. You didn't do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

GRIFFIN (voice over): That's because this guy isn't a real cybercriminal at all. He is an undercover Secret Service agent who for three years became part of this massive cybercriminal network befriending Maksik and even traveling to Ukraine, Turkey, Southeast Asia, to immerse himself in one of the fastest growing criminal schemes in the world.

Maksik and the Ukraine would hire hacking teams across the United States. These are the cyber criminals who electronically break in to stores, retailers, any company with large amounts of credit card information. The undercover agent would pretend to be a buyer who could use the stolen numbers and then literally create credit cards that look and act exactly like the card in your pocket. (on camera): And before you would even realize your credit card numbers had been stolen, crews were out buying up merchandise and sell teeing on the black market.

How many cards were available? How many credit lines were available?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of credit cards.

GRIFFIN (voice over): The Secret Service was buying up stolen credit cards in bulk on a weekly basis all in a well-planned ruse to reel in Maksik's trust and eventually Maksik himself.

(on camera): Did he seem like a criminal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of them came off as looking as a Mafia figure or the next big criminal. They were ordinary individuals.

GRIFFIN (voice over): After a night out in Turkey, he brought Maksik back to a hotel, where, as planned, they were both arrested. For more than a year, the agent continued the charade, even as Maksik was sentenced to 30 years in Turkish prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The Secret Service would be buying up as many credit card numbers as they could, because what they were doing was calling the banks and saying, hey we've got stolen credit cards here.

COSTELLO: We got a problem.

GRIFFIN: So you would be lucky if the Secret Service was buying your card. It was just an incredible tale of how this stuff is bundled, shipped to Europe and shipped back to the United States and used before anybody knows.

COSTELLO: So the changes that the credit card company says they are going to make by 2015, they are going to put chips inside the card they're going to make you use your pin number. Will that spoil guys like that?

GRIFFIN: It could help. It could help but these criminals they are really smart. And that's -- that's problem why Ukraine? Why not here, why these places like this?

Very, very smart, intelligent people with no jobs. So they come up with plans, schemes to make money and although they believe that the chips will slow it down, there is going to be a way around it. Although, it may take a little work.

COSTELLO: Drew Griffin, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, immigration reform shaping up to be the latest point of gridlock in Washington. John Boehner says it's all because of distrust from the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Republican House Speaker, John Boehner, making a bold prediction about the future of immigration reform in Washington. He took a shot at the White House in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Look, there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it's going to be difficult to move immigration legislation until that changes.

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COSTELLO: Our chief national correspondent and host of "INSIDE POLITICS", John King joins me now. So what happened to turn Boehner's seeming about-face.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You may recall it's just a week ago, John Boehner said this issue has been a political hostage for 15 years. Now it's time to act. Now he says probably not this year -- most likely not this year.

So what happened -- you heard the speaker say well, it's President Obama's fault. My members -- meaning the Republican members don't trust the president and that's true. They don't trust the president. They don't like him. They disagree with him on policy. They think that in the case of for example the healthcare law, it says one thing and the president, as you know, granted waivers and exceptions.

However, does anybody out there really think that the mood among House Republicans, their trust of President Obama changed in one week?

No, Carol -- what changed is that the Speaker really wants to do this. John Boehner himself personally believes you should have a path to legal status or pass the citizenship. We should have a new guest worker program that we should do some other things in the immigration area. But in this midterm election here especially, you have the whole bunch House member saying don't do this me Mr. Speaker.

I don't have a lot of Latino voters back home. Even legal status is viewed as amnesty in my district. I don't want to do this and I think it could hurt turnout come November. So this is a short-term calculation by the Republicans that Conservative based turnout is critical in the midterm election year. And they'll deal with 2016 and their president problem when it comes to Latino voters next year.

COSTELLO: Well, Joe Biden told Kate Bolduan that he thinks it still can get done. Is he right?

KING: He's right in the sense that if you brought legislation to the floor, would citizenship pass the House for the undocumented? Maybe. If the Democrats could vote, for it yes but the Republicans won't bring that to the floor. With legal status passed absolutely.

But could then, the House reconcile what it passed with what the Senate has already passed. That's another land mine for Republicans Carol because Mitch McConnell is the Senate Republican leader.

In any other year, he would agree to let's have a committee; let's try to work out our differences. Let's try to strike a compromise. But he has a Tea Party challenger back home who would call even legal status -- amnesty.

So Mitch McConnell is in no mood to do it. A lot of House conservatives are in no mood to do it. A lot of conservatives who think they can win democratically held senate seats are in no mood to do it. So even though this is a huge long term national problem -- crisis for the Republican Party when it comes to Latino voters and immigration reform they are putting the short term, 2014, ahead of the long term.

COSTELLO: John King, many thanks to you.

KING: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And you could check out John's new show "INSIDE POLITICS" this Sunday morning 8:30 Eastern right here on CNN.

Now to the moment from last night because everyone talking this morning. Jay Leno has officially ended his 22-year run as host of "The Tonight Show". And its fans showed him a lot of love. The finale turned out to be the show's highest rated since 2009.

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JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: Very kind, thank you very much, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: After a nearly minute long standing ovation, the show continued. And Leno was joined by his very first guest, Billy Crystal, along with some of Hollywood's biggest names.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CRYSTAL, ACTOR: When it was announced recently that America's number one domestic terrorists had been captured, who told us it was Justin Bieber? You did.

When President Obama's approval rating went down and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went up, who told us the president would be better off smoking crack than passing Obamacare? You did.

CAROL BURNETT, COMEDIAN: So long, farewell. I'm here so what the hell. For your last show, I will do the Tarzan yell.

CRYSTAL: It has been a great thrill for me as one of your friends in the business to watch you become one of America's friends. Someone who makes us feel a little bit better before we go to sleep at night.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: So long, farewell, you really raised the bar. If you were me, you'd buy them all a car. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to say, I'm not speaking for me. I'm speaking for all of us. The dearest friend to entertainment I'm staring at right now. You never chose any special format over another. You never chose a network over another. If you were an entertainer and need a friend and a win to the people, you were always it. I love you with all of my heart. I'm very proud of you.

LENO: I want to thank you, the audience. You folks have been just incredibly loyal. This is tricky. We wouldn't be on the air without you people.

Secondly, this has been the greatest 22 years of my life.

I am the luckiest guy in the world. I got to meet presidents, astronauts, movie stars. It's just been incredible but it really is time to go, hand it off to the next guy. It really is.

In closing, I want to quote Johnny Carson, who was the greatest guy to ever do this job. He said, I bid you all a heartfelt good night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Touching, right?

Leno plans to continue his stand-up routine starting tonight in Florida afterwards. Fellow comedian, Jimmy Kimmel tweeted, "Issues aside, 20 years at number one is a remarkable achievement. Congratulations and best wishes to Jay Leno. An incredible run."

Baby boomers -- here's a touchstone that may make you wince a little bit. It was 50 years ago today that a mop headed group of musicians touched down in New York and catapulted to dizzying new heights. The young Englishmen, of course, were The Beatles. The frenzy they ignited here in the United States surprised even them.

Relive some of the fun with rarely seen footage and interviews from the band that led to the British invasion. A special episode of the upcoming CNN original series "THE SIXTIES, THE BRITISH INVASION" airs tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

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COSTELLO: In today's "Making Your Mark" we want to take you to Pittsburgh where a couple watched their home burn to the ground. Poor kids, no insurance, no savings, homeless. But as our affiliate KDKA reports, a stranger came to the family's rescue and offered a free new home.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our brother now. This is our brother right here. You always have a home right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing feels more comfortable than knowing at the end of the day you have somewhere to go that you can call your own. We have to hold on to God and people like George that has come through for us when we need him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just amazed by the outpour of love shown from complete strangers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It will take some time to fix up the new home. It needs some plumbing and painting work. In the meantime another property owner came forward and offered the family an apartment to stay in temporarily. A lot of good folks in Pittsburgh.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Happening right now, a dramatic preview to the Florida movie theater shooting trial, stunning testimony and maybe the most shocking surveillance video you might see. It is all expected at a bond hearing for the man accused of killing a father who was sending a text message.

Also this hour, if the toothpaste terror alert didn't get your attention, wait till you hear what Russian officials say about the showers and the cameras in Sochi.