Justice Served To Payment Card-Stealing Malware Creator

The co-creator of a malicious malware that was used to steal payment card data and passwords from millions of computers worldwide was sentenced to five years’ probation on Friday (Jan. 29), Reuters reported.

A U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan sentenced Michael Hogue after he plead guilty in 2013 to distributing malware and plotting to commit computer hacking.

Hogue has also been ordered to forfeit $40,000 and complete 500 hours of community service.

Alex Yucel, who co-created and sold the malware known as Blackshades alongside Hogue, told U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Castel last year that he “aided and abetted others by knowingly transmitting a program, Blackshades, which caused damage to a computer over the Internet without authorization.”

He was sentenced to 4.75 years in prison last June.

Prosecutors said Yucel ran a sales organization that included a marketing director and customer service reps, generating sales of more than $350,000 by April 2014. The following month, a sweep by U.S. and European authorities shut down the Blackshades operation and arrested about 90 people.

The $40 program included a keylogger that, once a computer was infected, allowed a hacker to capture payment card information as it was entered at eCommerce websites.

The Blackshades remote-access tool also let a cyberthief look through files on an infected machine, spy on users through the computer’s webcam, encrypt victims’ computer files and then demand ransom to unlock them and infect other computers through instant messages or social website links.

Blackshades reportedly had at least 6,000 customers across 100 countries.