Category Archives: Ruslan Bondars

Operator of ‘VirusTotal for criminals’ gets 14-year prison sentence

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A Latvian hacker convicted of crimes relating to running the for-profit malware scanning site “Scan4You” was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday. Ruslan Bondars, 37, was convicted earlier this year on three charges, including violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion with intent to cause damage. The court found a loss amount of $20.5 billion. “Ruslan Bondars helped malware developers attack American businesses,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. “The Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners make no distinction between service providers like Scan4You and the hackers they assist: we will hold them accountable for all of the significant harm they cause and work tirelessly to bring them to justice, wherever they may be located.” Operated from 2009 to 2016, Scan4You is similar to VirusTotal — a long-running repository favored by the cybersecurity industry — but was intentionally […]

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Latvian national convicted of running ‘VirusTotal-for-criminals’ malware scanner

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A Latvian hacker has been convicted of crimes relating to running “Scan4You,” a for-profit website that allowed criminals to test if malware could be detected by security software. Ruslan Bondars, 37, was convicted by a federal jury on three charges including violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion with intent to cause damage. Bondars faces the possibility of 35 years in prison, but sentences for this kind of crime are typically far smaller in practice. He was arrested last year with Jurijs Martisevs, another Latvian accused of running Scan4You. Martisevs plead guilty earlier this year. “Ruslan Bondars designed and operated a service that provided essential aid to some of the world’s most destructive hackers,” Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. Bondars was responsible for the technical infrastructure of the service. Scan4You is similar in many ways […]

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