The United States inflicted a "double blow" on Russian hackers

The Federal Court in Seattle sentenced the 32-year-old Roman Seleznev to 27 years in prison. A Russian citizen received the largest time in the history of the United States, the period of imprisonment for crimes related to computer hacking. The Federal Court of Connecticut accused the 36-year-old Peter Levashov arrested in Spain, Connecticut accused of spam attacks: it is intentionally causing harm to computers in order to obtain access to personal and commercial information. American law enforcement agencies achieve the issuance of a Russian hacker.

Indicative process

Last year, the jury of the jury found the Roman Seleznev guilty of committing criminal transactions that led to thefts of information about credit cards, which caused the damage to American companies - $ 170 million. This is what is proved. General damage is noted in the court documents, can be calculated by billions.

From personal computers directly from his houses in Vladivostok and on the island of Bali, Seleznev sold over 2 million credit cards in numbers to partners. From the actions of the Russian hacker, who first pleaded guilty before the investigation, and now calling the lips of the lawyer the verdict “political”, more than 500 companies, 3700 financial institutions were injured.

The accusation asked for 30 years in prison (initially it was generally about life imprisonment), the court sentenced the Russian criminal to 27 years - a record term for the hacker for American justice. “This process is unprecedented,” the memorandum says about the sentencing.

The American Secret Service, which, in addition to protecting the president and vice president, was going to arrest Seleznev in addition to the protection of the president and vice president, but he prudently avoided visiting countries that signed an agreement on mutual extradition.

It was possible to take the hacker in July 2014 in the Maldives, where he rested with his friend. Although there is no formal agreement with the Maldives on the issuance, the local authorities went to meet the United States. First, the secret service agents delivered a hacker on a private plane on GUAM, then to the Washington federal prison. Investigators found evidence of hacker activity in seized computers of Seleznev.

The ministers of the American Themis believe that the trial of Seleznev is a significant event. “Today is a bad day for hackers around the world,” announced the federal prosecutor of the Western District of Washington Annette Hayes. - The idea of ​​the Internet as a new wild West, where "everything can be possible," is outdated. "

Difficult childhood. Confession of the hacker

Valery Seleznev - the father of the Hacker, a deputy of the State Duma, called his son’s arrest “abduction”, and the accusations - “grandiose lies”, the American media write. A member of the LDPR faction claims that his son was tortured. The Russian Foreign Ministry sharply condemned the actions of the authorities of the Maldives, their "aiding in the abduction of man."

“Today I am alive, and I thank God and the Government of the United States of America,” Roman Seleznev wrote in a 11-page letter to the court. “Before the arrest, I walked along a very dangerous road.” In a letter written by hand, the hacker fully pleads his guilt and asks for forgiveness for all the victims of his fraud.

Seleznev describes in detail a difficult childhood - directly, like Dickens. Parents divorced when the boy was 2 years old. He and his mother huddled in a 10-meter room in an apartment where 4 more families lived. Then my mother bought a brother’s apartment in installments and went to work as a cashier in the store. A little romance was alone at home all the time. He became interested in computer technology. When he was 10 years old, the mother, who became an alcoholic, drowned in the bathroom. His uncle kicked out of the apartment and took all valuable things. Seleznev got a job at a computer company, met the "bad guys" on the Internet, learned to steal data from credit cards.

Later, having achieved success in this field, Seleznev married, he had a daughter. Then, robbers entered his house who knew about the genuine profession of Seleznev. He was tortured. Due to extortion and the threat of life to his wife and daughter, Hacker moves to Bali, where he “ties” with a criminal business for a while. Everyday difficulties, the inability to get a job as a programmer returned him to the previous classes. At the resort in Morocco, Hacker got into the epicenter of the attack. Over 20 people were killed from the explosion arranged by the suicide bomber, and a piece of skull was torn off Seleznev. Father helped with emergency transportation to Moscow, where the most difficult operation on the brain was waiting for the novel. Contrary to all forecasts, he recovered (he explains the miracle by the fact that he was baptized while he was in a coma), stood on his feet, but a new shock awaited him. The wife took all his money and left with her daughter to America. He returned to the criminal business again.

The prosecutor's office was asked not to take into account the letter of the defendant, indicating that he had not previously collaborated with the investigation. The prosecutor compared the hacker with the gangster Tony Soprano from the popular television series and demonstrated a photo of Seleznev, posing against the background of the picture, where he himself is captured with orders and ribbons. He ordered a similar picture to his soprano - in the front -line uniform of the 18th century.

King Spam

So the American media nicknamed the Russian Peter Levashov. The US Ministry of Justice said that he is making efforts to close Kelihos Botnet - a network of tens of thousands of infected computers operating since 2010.

The American press quotes the wife of the detainee Maria Levashova, who declared RT that the Spanish police broke into the hotel room in the middle of the night, knocked her and 4-year-old son on the floor. Local police allegedly told her that her husband was arrested on charges of hacking related to the American elections.

Levashov, a computer pseudonym Peter Severa, using the Kelihos network infected with viruses computers, turning them into bots controlled by him. Sliding fictitious advertising, work proposals, reports of winnings in the lottery, the system collected personal information with fraudulent purposes. In 2009, the Federal Court of County of Colombia charged Levashov related to the management of another viral newsletter system, but 3 years ago it was removed because the Americans could not catch the hacker.

This time, Levashov’s case may obey Alaska, reports The Daily Beast, citing sources in the FBI. Several thousand residents of this state suffered from the hacker, about 100 thousand computers could be affected by Botnet.

The departure of a million spam messages with sex advertising cost $ 200, and a million messages with the spam for hiring for work-$ 300, says the special agent of the FBI, Ellido Peterson.

According to New York Times, Botnet Kelihos was allegedly involved in the course of the presidential election in Russia in 2012. The emails associated with this system distributed fake news that one of the candidates - Mikhail Prokhorov - “is gay”.

The list does not end

For many years, the American law enforcement agencies could not catch and condemn Russian hackers, which, according to New York Times, act in Russia completely with impunity, unless, of course, they touch those who cannot be touched. In exchange for the immunity of cybercriminals, they are often used to work for Russian special services. And only traveling abroad, Russian hackers are becoming available to the American femid.

Seleznev was detained in the Maldives; Levashov in Barcelona; In January of this year, at the request of the FBI and Interpol, the programmer Stanislav Lisov (31 years old) was captured; In October last year, the hacker Evgeny Nikulin was detained in Prague. Lisov was in absentia under investigation in the United States for 2 years for the development and use of the Neverquest computer virus, which was distributed through social networks, e -mail and file transfer. With the help of the virus, a million dollars were stolen. The Federal Court in Okland, California, accused Nikulin of breaking the computer networks of LinkedIn, Dropbox, theft of personal data, fraud, decommissioning computers and sent an official request for its issuance of America. The hacker faces 30 years in prison and a fine of $ 1 million.

Sources in American law enforcement agencies report that another 30 - 40 Russian hackers remain outside the “access zone” of the American police and special services.