Two men of Eastern European origin have been sentenced in the US state of Michigan for their roles in providing “bulletproof hosting” services to cybercriminals who bombed US financial institutions and victims with malware between 2009 and 2015.
Aiding an organization established by two co-defendants of Russian origin, the group had provided the technical means to distribute malware, stole banking information to be used in fraud schemes also assisted with evading detection by law enforcement by moving blacklisted content to new sites and registering them under fake identities.
The DOJ’s Criminal division has emphasized the rise of cybercrime and the threat it poses to the U.S. businesses and remarked that the prosecutions conveyed a message to the perpetrators, accomplices and accessories of such malign operations.
Pointing at the role of defendants in providing a “safe haven” to cybercriminals, the statement by FBI Special Agent Timothy Waters underlined the cross-border nature of the type of criminal activity. The investigation of the case by the FBI had been assisted by law enforcement partners in three European countries, Germany, the United Kingdom and Estonia.
The prosecutions demonstrate the rigorous efforts of U.S. law enforcement to effectively fight cybercrime and the nature of cross-borders inter-agency cooperation in combatting illicit networks online.
The perpetrators each pleaded guilty to one count of RICO scheme and the head of the organisation may face 20 years in prison.
