The last individual charged was sentenced for the Gozi banking malware. Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a/k/a “Virus,” a dual Romanian and Latvian national was sentenced to three years. The Justice department’s press release sums this case up better than I could:
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Mihai Ionut Paunescu is alleged to have run a “bulletproof hosting” service that enabled cyber criminals throughout the world to spread the Gozi Virus and other malware and to commit numerous other cybercrimes. His hosting service was specifically designed to allow cyber criminals to remain hidden and anonymous from law enforcement. Even though he was initially arrested in 2012, Paunescu will finally be held accountable inside a U.S. courtroom. This case demonstrates that we will work with our law enforcement partners here and abroad to pursue cyber criminals who target Americans, no matter how long it takes.”
…
The Gozi Virus infected over one million victim computers worldwide, among them at least 40,000 computers in the United States, including computers belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”), as well as computers in Germany, Great Britain, Poland, France, Finland, Italy, Turkey and elsewhere, and it caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to the individuals, businesses, and government entities whose computers were infected. Once installed, the Gozi Virus – which was intentionally designed to be undetectable by anti-virus software – collected data from the infected computer in order to capture personal bank account information, including usernames and passwords. That data was then transmitted to various computer servers controlled by the cyber criminals who used the Gozi Virus. These cyber criminals then used the personal bank account information to transfer funds out of the victims’ bank accounts and ultimately into their own personal possession.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/romanian-national-known-virus-extradited-operating-bulletproof-hosting-service
Sources:
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/romanian-national-known-virus-extradited-operating-bulletproof-hosting-service
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/charging-documents-us-v-nikita-kuzmin-us-v-mihai-ionut-paunescu-and-us-v-deniss
- https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/13/paunescu_sentence_gozi/
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15652968/united-states-v-paunescu/
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/49230612/united-states-v-paunescu/
- https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2023/06/13/gozi-banking-malware-it-chief-finally-jailed-after-more-than-10-years/
Transcript:
00:00:13:10 – 00:00:22:17
Keith
Today on eCrimeBytes nibble number 51 the last man from the Gozi banking malware group was sentenced to three years in prison.
00:00:22:17 – 00:00:40:08
Keith
Mihai Paunescu, a.k.a. virus, a dual Romanian and Latvian National, was sentenced to three years. So I took a look at the research and the Justice Department press release sums this case up much better than I could.
00:00:40:11 – 00:01:05:18
Keith
The U.S. attorney on the case said that the criminal is alleged to have run a quote unquote bulletproof hosting service that enabled cyber criminals throughout the world to spread the Gozi virus and other malware to commit numerous other cyber crimes. They said his hosting service was specifically designed to allow cyber criminals to remain hidden and anonymous from law enforcement.
00:01:05:20 – 00:01:28:22
Keith
Even though he was initially arrested in 2012. He will finally be held accountable inside a U.S. courtroom. This case demonstrates that we will work with our law enforcement partners here and abroad to pursue cyber criminals who target Americans no matter how long it takes. A little further down the press release, they gave you a little information about the damage of this malware.
00:01:28:27 – 00:02:00:08
Keith
They said that the Gozi virus infected over 1 million victim computers worldwide. Among them was at least 40,000 computers in the United States, including computers belonging to NASA, as well as computers in other countries like Germany, Great Britain, Poland, France, Finland, Italy, Turkey and other countries. It caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to individuals, businesses and government entities whose computers were infected.
00:02:00:10 – 00:02:37:06
Keith
Once installed, the Gozi virus, which was intentionally designed to be untraceable by antivirus software, collected data from the infected computer in order to capture personal bank account information, including usernames and passwords. The data was then transmitted to various computer servers controlled by these cybercriminals who use this gauzy virus. These cyber criminals then used this bank account information that they collected and transferred funds out of the victims accounts and into accounts of cybercriminals owned.
00:02:37:06 – 00:02:50:12
Keith
So if you enjoyed this really quick eCrimeBytes nibble, I’m going to guarantee you’re going to like our longer eCrimeBytes episodes where my co-host, Seth and I, we take a crime like this and we go a little more in-depth into it.
00:02:50:12 – 00:02:52:21
Keith
I really hope to see you over there on one of the
00:02:52:21 – 00:02:53:23
Keith
full episodes soon.
00:02:53:26 – 00:02:55:26
Keith
Thanks. Bye.
#ecrimebytes #electronic #truecrime #podcast #humor #funny #comedy #banking #malware #gozi
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