A 27-year old Russian man convicted on 20 counts of hacking,
fraud and conspiracy, has been sentenced to three years in prison
by a US Federal Court. Vasily Gorshkov was one of two Russians
tricked into travelling to the US for an imaginary job interview in
an FBI investigation.
The two hackers used their computers in Russia to steal
passwords and credit card details from US-based ISPs, on-line banks
and e-commerce web sites. Once discovered, they were invited to the
US for job interviews with “Invita,” a fake security company set up
by the FBI.
During the ‘interview’ they were asked to prove their skills by
scanning an Invita computer for vulnerabilities. The FBI used
eavesdropping software to monitor every keystroke and obtain the
hackers’ passwords. These passwords were then used to download
evidence from the hackers’ computer system in Russia.
Gorshkov, who could have been sentenced to at least 16 years in
prison, was also ordered to pay restitution of about $690,000 for
losses he caused to Speakeasy Network and the on-line payment
company PayPal.
The Russian state security service has filed a complaint,
accusing FBI officials of illegally hacking into a foreign computer
network.
