Colombia catches hacker wanted in the U.S. for 'Gozi' virus
BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian officials say they have arrested a Romanian hacker who is wanted in the U.S. for distributing a virus that infected more than a million computers from 2007 to 2012.
Mihai Ionut Paunescu faces computer intrusion and banking
fraud charges in New York, where prosecutors say he was part of a ring of
criminals that developed and spread the “Gozi" virus and other forms of
malware that were used to steal money from bank accounts.
Prosecutors say that Gozi infected computers in at least
eight countries, including the United States, Germany, Finland and the United
Kingdom.
Victims included individuals, corporations and also
computers belonging to NASA.
The virus traveled within PDF documents and once it entered
a computer it was able to steal bank account passwords, enabling cyber
criminals to take “tens of millions of dollars” from victims according to an
indictment filed in the Southern District Court of New York.
Prosecutors say Paunescu designed hosting systems that
helped cyber criminals to share the virus files without being detected. The
virus was rented out to criminal operators for a fee of $500 a week.
In 2016, the virus’ creator, Nikita Kuzmin, was sentenced to
37 months in prison and fined $7 million following a plea bargain. A Latvian
programmer who helped design the virus also received a 21-month prison sentence
after being extradited to the U.S.
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