Blackhole Exploit Kit Author Gets 7 Years

[Jack]

Content source

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/04/blackhole-exploit-kit-author-gets-8-years/

A Moscow court this week convicted and sentenced seven hackers for breaking into countless online bank accounts — including “Paunch,” the nickname used by the author of the infamous “Blackhole” exploit kit. Once an extremely popular crimeware-as-a-service offering, Blackhole was for several years responsible for a large percentage of malware infections and stolen banking credentials, and likely contributed to tens of millions of dollars stolen from small to mid-sized businesses over several years.

According to Russia’s ITAR-TASS news network, Dmitry “Paunch” Fedotovwas sentenced on April 12 to seven years in a Russian penal colony. In October 2013, the then 27-year-old Fedotov was arrested along with an entire team of other cybercriminals who worked to sell, develop and profit from Blackhole.

According to Russian security firm Group-IB, Paunch had more than 1,000 customers and was earning $50,000 per month from his illegal activity. The image at right shows Paunch standing in front of his personal car, a Porsche Cayenne.

First spotted in 2010, BlackHole is commercial crimeware designed to be stitched into hacked or malicious sites and exploit a variety of Web-browser vulnerabilities for the purposes of installing malware of the customer’s choosing.

The price of renting the kit ran from $500 to $700 each month. For an extra $50 a month, Paunch also rented customers “crypting” services; cryptors are designed to obfuscate malicious software so that it remains undetectable by antivirus software.

Read more: ‘Blackhole’ Exploit Kit Author Gets 7 Years — Krebs on Security

 

[LabZero]

This sentence is significant because it is a clear message to cyber criminals that demonstrates the victory of justice!

 

[jamescv7]

Finally something deserves a justice in the world of cybercrime however..... Different logic for other companies to hire a specific that contains specialized skills on hacking.

Blackhole exploit kit, numerous problems for many AV already.

 

[jasonX]

7 years ONLY???? He should be given more!