Last Updated on 22/11/2021 by Sunaina
A US judge sentenced two Eastern European men to prison for operating a bulletproof hosting service used by cybercriminals to distribute malware. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Wednesday that Estonian and Lithuanian citizens Pavel Stassi and Aleksandr Skorodumov had been sentenced to 24 and 48 months in prison, respectively.
The 30- and 33-year-old men were accused of offering bulletproof web hosting services, which are a popular choice for cybercriminals looking for a host that would turn a blind eye to illicit activities.
Bulletproof hosting providers, which are frequently discovered on the Dark Web, may host malware, explicit abuse content, or e-commerce platforms selling illicit commodities including criminal hacking tools, narcotics, and firearms.
The bulletproof host was used in this case to store malware payloads such as Zeus, SpyEye, Citadel, and the Blackhole exploit kit. The infrastructure was used to host malware used in attacks against financial institutions and other victims, resulting in “millions of dollars” in theft and attempted theft in the United States alone. Furthermore, the bulletproof host was utilised in the construction of botnets.
“The defendants also assisted their clients in evading law enforcement and continuing their crimes unabated by monitoring sites used to blocklist technical infrastructure used for crime, moving “flagged” content to new infrastructure, and registering all such infrastructure under false or stolen identities,” according to the DoJ.
At the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, all four accused pled guilty to one count of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy. Grichishkin and Skvortsov are awaiting their sentences, although they might face far worse penalties of up to 20 years in prison apiece.
