An American judge sentenced two men from Eastern Europe for operating a bulletproof hosting service that was used by cybercriminals to develop malware.
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On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Pavel Stassi and Aleksandr Skorodumov, from Estonia and Lithuania, have now been imprisoned for 24 months and 48 months, respectively.
The 30- and 33-year-old duo was accused of providing online hosting services known as bulletproof — a popular choice for cybercriminals who need a host that will turn a blind eye to criminal activity.
Bulletproof hosting providers, often found on the Dark Web, may host malware, explicit abuse material, or e-commerce that offer illegal items, such as criminal hacking tools, drugs, and weapons.
In this case, the bulletproof host was used to store malicious payloads, including Zeus, SpyEye, Citadel and the Blackhole exploit kit.
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The DoJ says that between 2009 and 2015, Stassi and Skorodumov, together with their associates Aleksandr Grichishkin and Andrei Skvortsov from Russia, rented servers and domains to threat actors.
The infrastructure was used to host malware that was used in campaigns against financial institutions and other victims, leading to theft and attempted theft “millions of dollars” only in the United States. Additionally, the bulletproof host was used in the creation of botnets.
Skorodumov acted as the chief system administrator who also provided technical support to clients. Stassi participated in general management tasks, marketing and used either stolen or false information to register web hosts and open financial accounts for the program.
Grichishkin and Skvortsov were founding members and daily administrators.
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And the four suspects admitted their guilt at the US Regional Court in the Eastern District of Michigan. Grichishkin and Skvortsov are awaiting their sentences, although they may face much higher penalties of up to 20 years behind bars each.
Information source: zdnet.com
