Fergie's Tech Blog

F-Secure: So, What Does The Enemy Look Like in Real Life?

Image source: F-Secure

Yesterday at the conference I had a chance to meet Anton Aleksandrovich Pakhomov. He works as a public prosecutor in the Saratov Regional Prosecutor's Office in Russia.

Mr. Pakhamov worked as a prosecutor on a case against denial-of-service extortionists. The case involved a large botnet that was used to attack webshops and gambling operators in UK and in USA. Targeted companies were forced to pay a ransom to get their sites back online. The ring earned several million dollars before they were caught.

The case involved 10 persons in Latvia (money mules) and four attackers from Russia and two from Kazakhstan. Out of these, three persons were successfully located and prosecuted in the city of Balakov in Russia. The whole investigation took more than a year, but in the end the three individuals were all sentenced. They got eight years of prison each.

So who were they? They were, from left to right [above], Alexander Petrov, Denis Stepanov and Ivan Maksakov.

posted by Fergie @ 3/28/2007 11:06:00 AM