Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Four Eastern Europeans Admit in U.S. Court to Providing Bulletproof Hosting

Four individuals from Eastern Europe have pleaded guilty in a United States court to their roles in a RICO conspiracy. Between 2008 and 2015, the four individuals provided “bulletproof hosting” services that threat actors employed for cyberattacks on entities in the United States.

Four individuals from Eastern Europe have pleaded guilty in a United States court to their roles in a RICO conspiracy. Between 2008 and 2015, the four individuals provided “bulletproof hosting” services that threat actors employed for cyberattacks on entities in the United States.

While similar to regular web hosting, bulletproof hosting services allow cybercriminals to store all kinds of malicious content on their servers and make no attempt to interrupt such nefarious activities.

Two Russians, Aleksandr Grichishkin, 34, and Andrei Skvortsov, 34; one Lithuanian, Aleksandr Skorodumov, 33; and one Estonian, Pavel Stassi, 30, admitted in court to founding and operating a bulletproof hosting organization.

The four rented servers, IP addresses, and domains to cybercriminals, providing them with the means to distribute malware, ensnare victim computers into botnets, and steal banking credentials.

Some of the malware families known to have leveraged the group’s hosting services included Citadel, SpyEye, Zeus, and the Blackhole Exploit Kit. Between 2009 and 2015, these malware families targeted U.S. companies and financial institutions, causing or attempting to cause millions of dollars in losses.

The four also helped their cybercriminal clients evade detection by law enforcement through continuous monitoring of sites used to blocklist cybercrime infrastructure and by moving the flagged content to new infrastructure. The group used false or stolen identities to register the required infrastructure.

The organization was founded by Grichishkin and Skvortsov, who oversaw personnel and marketing and client relations, respectively. Skorodumov served as a lead system administrator, configuring and managing domains and IP addresses and offering technical assistance. Stassi was in charge of administrative tasks such as conducting and tracking online marketing and registering web hosting and financial accounts using stolen and/or false information.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Skvortsov pled guilty to one count of RICO conspiracy on Friday. Stassi, Skorodumov, and Grichishkin admitted guilt in February and March 2021, the Department of Justice announced. Stassi is set for sentencing on June 3, while Skorodumov, Grichishkin, and Skvortsov will be sentenced on June 29, July 8, and September 16, respectively.

Each of the four faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Related: ‘Dark Overlord’ Hacker Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

Related: Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for DDoS Attacks

Related: Nigerian Hacker Sentenced to Prison in U.S. for Targeting Government Employees

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Artificial Intelligence

The degree of danger that may be introduced when adversaries start to use AI as an effective weapon of attack rather than a tool...