Ruslans Bondars, Latvian Security Expert who developed a service designed to counter anti-virus has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, he was also charged under conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion with intent to cause damage.
“A Latvian “non-citizen,” suggesting a citizen of the former USSR who resided in Riga, Latvia, was convicted to 168 months in prison today for offences related to his operation of “Scan4you,” an online counter antivirus service that supported computer hackers determine whether the computer viruses and other malicious software they created would be detected by antivirus software, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. ” reads the press release published by DoJ.
What is the difference between VirusTotal and Scan4You?
Scan4You is similar to online multi-engine scanner which helps hackers test their malware to check if it’s being detected by other anti-virus vendors.
VirusTotal sends malware samples to the vendors to patch, however Scan4You doesn’t do the same to uploaded files. Bondars is one of the hackers who has been found running Scan4You since its service is popular in the cybercrime community.
What is the loss caused by this service?
Scan4You also helps the bad actors to develop malicious code that can be used to steal payment card information.
“In issuing the sentence, the court found a loss value of $20.5 billion. In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady ordered Bondars to complete three years of supervised release. A decision regarding forfeiture and payment of restitution to victims of the offences is forthcoming.”
The DoJ has also found that Scan4You was used to test the malware that was used to steal over 40 million credit card and debit card details from US retail stores causing a $292 million dollar loss.
“Ruslans Bondars helped malware developers attack American businesses,” explained Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.
The judge has sentenced the developer of Scan4You to 14 years jail time.
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