Ryan Neil Green, 32, of Paducah, Kentucky, was sentenced to two years probation and 50 hours of community service for selling a spam botnet on the infamous Darkode hacking forum.
According to court records, between 2006 and 2012, Green built a botnet of 77,000 bots, which he rented to other cybercriminals through Darkode, a forum where various types of hackers and scammers chatted to buy or sell malware, hacking tools, and even drugs.
Green was one of 70 hackers arrested by law enforcement last year around the world after police successfully infiltrated the forum and permanently shut it down.
Despite the fact that he had no recent participation in activities, the user had previously committed illegal acts and was therefore arrested.
Green was given a suspended sentence because the judge was convinced that the defendant had changed his life and abandoned illegal activities as a hacker, after the birth of his daughter and after founding his own web design company where he deals with search engine optimization and bears the name Rygre Digital Marketing.
Another factor that helped the defendant receive a suspended sentence was his full cooperation with the authorities.
