Online Attack Leads to Peek Into Spam Den

[A Guy]

For years, Igor A. Artimovich had been living in a three-room apartment he shared with his wife in St. Petersburg, sitting for long hours in front of his Lenovo laptop in his pajamas, drinking sugary coffee.

Igor Artimovich has been linked with a prolific illegal network of virus-infected computers that send spam worldwide.

If he were known at all to Western security analysts who track the origins of spam, and in particular the ubiquitous subset of spam e-mails that promote male sexual enhancement products, it was only by the handle he used in Russian chat rooms, Engel.

His pleasant existence, living in obscurity, changed this summer when a court in Moscow linked Mr. Artimovich and three others with one of the world’s most prolific spambots, or illegal networks of virus-infected computers that send spam.

Source

A Guy

 

[Layback Bear]

Very interesting. Thanks A Guy.
Two to three years for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and risking peoples lives doesn't seem like enough punishment. The Russian government will probably set them up a computer in prison so they can continue on.