Russian Aleksandr Andreevich Panin and Algerian Hamza Bendelladj created a virus that infected banks around the world causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. This week the hackers, who go by the nicknames Gribodemon and Bx1, were sentenced to a total of 24 1/2 years in prison. The SpyEye virus — or malware — that Panin and Bendelladj unleashed infected over 50 million computers, according the US Justice Department (DOJ), before the FBI “dismantled” it. The malware was on the loose from 2010 to 2012.
The DOJ reports that the FBI got to Panin and Bendelladj just before Panin was due to release SpyEye 2.0. The report reveals that: “Panin was arrested by U.S. authorities on July 1, 2013, when he flew through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. On January 28, 2014, Panin pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Bendelladj was apprehended at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, on January 5, 2013, while he was in transit from Malaysia to Algeria. Bendelladj was extradited from Thailand to the United States on May 2, 2013. On June 26, 2015, Bendelladj pleaded guilty to all 23 counts of the superseding indictment.” More about the prosecution and the malware itself can he read here.
