Ruslans Bondars, operator of the "Scan4you" counter antivirus (CAV) service, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in helping hackers evade antivirus software, the Department of Justice announced this week.

Scan4you was one of the Dark Web's largest CAV services before it was shut down in 2016. Cyberattackers could use it to determine whether the malicious software they created would be detected by antivirus software. Between 2009 and 2012, the time frame when Scan4you was running, at least 30,000 people used the illicit service to test their malware.

Bondars, a 38-year-old Latvian resident and citizen of the former USSR, was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia on May 16, 2018. After a five-day trial, he was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of computer intrusion with intent to cause damage and aiding and abetting.

"Ruslans Bondars helped malware developers attack American businesses," said assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski. One of these was Target, which was hit with a breach in 2013 that compromised more than 40 million credit cards and nearly 70 million email addresses. Another attacker used Scan4you to create the Citadel Trojan, which infected over 11 million devices.

In issuing its sentence, the court found a total loss amount of $20.5 billion. On top of Bondars'  prison sentence, a judge ordered him to three years of supervised release.

Read more details here.

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