Ukrainian Man Sentenced For 41 Months For Hacking Scam

U.S. prosecutors sentenced a Ukrainian man who was charged with running two hacking forums online to 41 months in prison.

According to a report by Reuters, Sergey Vovnenko, who went by the aliases “Flycracker” and “Darklife,” was sentenced for taking over more than 13,000 computers to get his hands on logins and credit card information. U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in New Jersey sentenced Vovnenko after he pleaded guilty last year to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, reported Reuters. Vovnenko was also told to pay restitution of $83,368. Vovnenko’s attorney, Timothy Anderson, told Reuters he was happy the sentence wasn’t longer and that his client could get out in a few months if he gets credit for the 32 months he has spent in custody. “He has committed himself to not be involved in criminal activities anymore,” Anderson said in the Reuters report.

According to the complaint, Vovnenko engaged in computer hacking from 2010 to 2012, stealing usernames and passwords for bank accounts off of individual and company computers. He also stole debit and credit card numbers. Vovnenko reportedly admitted to running a botnet of greater than 13,000 computers that were infected with malware to get into the systems and used the Zeus malware to steal the bank account information by recording keystrokes of the people using the computers that were infected. Prosecutors also alleged Vovnenko was the administrator for several online hacking forums and, thanks to his position as the administer, was able to hawk the data he stole from unsuspecting consumers. Vovnenko was extradited to the U.S. in Oct. 2015 after being arrested in June 2014.