A Romanian man accused of distributing a pc virus that hit over 1 million computer systems has been extradited to the US. The suspect, 37-year-old Mihai Paunescu, allegedly ran a internet hosting service that helped distribute the Gozi virus, which induced tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of monetary losses worldwide.
First found in 2007, the Gozi virus was in a position to go undetected because it stole checking account data from computer systems – 40,000 of which had been within the US, with 140 belonging to NASA.
Dubbed “one of the vital financially damaging pc viruses in historical past,” the virus was disguised as a PDF doc that, when opened, secretly put in the virus on the sufferer’s pc. As soon as put in, the Gozi virus – designed to be undetectable by anti-virus software program – collected knowledge to seize private checking account data, together with usernames and passwords.
This data was transmitted to pc servers managed by cyber-criminals, who used the main points to switch funds from victims’ financial institution accounts.
Paunescu has been charged with conspiring to commit pc fraud intrusion financial institution and wire fraud. He allegedly enabled different cybercrimes, reminiscent of “distributing malware together with the Zeus Trojan and the SpyEye Trojan, initiating and executing distributed denial of service (DDoS) assaults and transmitting spam,” the US Division of Justice (DoJ) mentioned.
Paunescu was initially arrested in Romania in December 2012 and launched on bail, and he was arrested once more in Colombia final 12 months.
Paunescu is the newest arrest referring to the Gozi virus. Nikita Kuzmin, the Russian who allegedly created the virus, was arrested in 2010 after touring to a convention within the US and pleaded responsible the next 12 months in an settlement with prosecutors.
In 2016, Kuzmin was ordered to pay $6.9m to cowl losses to financial institution prospects after spending three years in jail, however he was spared additional US jail time. A Latvian man who admitted to having written a few of the pc code was sentenced to time served after spending 21 months in jail.
Javvad Malik, lead safety consciousness advocate at KnowBe4, mentioned Paunescu’s extradition “sends a powerful message to different would-be criminals as to the seriousness of their actions and the implications.”
Ian Thornton-Trump, CISO at Cyjax, mentioned the extradition is “nice information” given “the monetary injury throughout that time period whereas these cyber-criminals had been in operation.”
“It definitely illustrates the necessity for extra expeditious worldwide cooperation between international locations,” Thornton-Trump added.
