The Romanian nationals stole some $4 million in a vast malware, botnet, and cryptocurrency operation.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

December 9, 2019

1 Min Read

Bucharest, Romania citizens Bogdan Nicolescu, and Radu Miclaus, 37, have been sentenced in US prison for their roles in the Bayrob Group cybercrime operation that infected and took control of some 400,000 computers and stole $4 million.

Nicolescu, 37, received a 20-year sentence, and Miclaus, 37, an 18-year sentence. The two men, as well as another Romanian national, Tiberiu Danet, were arrested in 2016 and charged by US authorities in December of that year. The Bayrob group first began infecting computers in 2007 with its own malware that it sent via phishing emails posing as Western Union, Norton Antivirus, and the IRS. 

The gang stole credit card and other information from the infected machines and then sold them on the Dark Web. The infected machines served as a botnet army to attack and infect other machines and also were used for cryptocurrency mining, according to the US Department of Justice.

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Dark Reading Staff

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