News

Bulletproof hosting admins plead guilty

The four “bulletproof” hosting admins, immigrants from Eastern Europe, face up to 20 years in prison on charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Two Russian citizens, as well as citizens of Lithuania and Estonia, have already pleaded guilty to administering banned hosting that was used for criminal operations aimed at American organizations.

The hosting, whose name has not been disclosed, was founded by Russian citizens Alexander Grichishkin and Andrey Skvortsov, who then hired Lithuanian Alexander Skorodumov and Estonian Pavel Stassi as system administrator and manager, respectively. Grichishkin and Skvortsov themselves were engaged in marketing, personnel management and customer support, while Skorodumov and Stassi maintained all systems in working order and helped clients – botnet and malware operators.

The US Department of Justice writes that the hosting provided cybercriminals with the infrastructure they used to conduct malicious campaigns between 2008 and 2015.

The group rented IP addresses, servers and domains for its cybercriminal clients, who then used this infrastructure to host the malware needed to gain access to victims’ computers, form botnets and steal bank credentials for subsequent fraud. The malware hosted by this company included Zeus, SpyEye, Citadel and the Blackhole Exploit Kit, which continually attacked US companies and financial institutions between 2009 and 2015, causing or attempting to cause millions of dollars in losses.the Justice Department said in a statement.

The hosting also provided other services to customers, including registering new infrastructure using fictitious or stolen identity so that hackers could bypass law enforcement locks and conduct attacks without detection.

Over the years, the defendants have facilitated transnational criminal activity and worked with a vast network of cybercriminals around the world, providing them with anonymous safe havens for their criminal activities. This resulted in the loss of millions of dollars in the United States.FBI Special Agent Timothy Waters says.

Sentences to Stassi, Skorodumov, Grichishkin and Skvortsov will be handed down on June 3, June 29, July 8 and September 16 this year. Each of the four accused persons faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Let me remind you that we wrote that Facebook-Google Scammer Pleads Guilty in $123 Million Theft, as well as that Teenager that hacked Twitter will spend three years in prison.

Sending
User Review
0 (0 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

Daniel Zimmermann

Daniel Zimmermann has been writing on security and malware subjects for many years and has been working in the security industry for over 10 years. Daniel was educated at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany and currently lives in New York.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sending

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button