The creator of the botnet Bredolab received 4 years in prison

A court in Armenia found guilty a Russian hacker Georgy Avanesov. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison under Part 3 of Art. 253 of the criminal code of Armenia (computer sabotage, coupled with unauthorized access to a computer system, entailing serious consequences through negligence). This is the first sentence for cybercrime imposed in Armenia.

The botnet created by Avanesov, known as Bredolab, was launched in mid-2009. Spamming and renting botnet capacities for DDoS attacks brought a 27-year-old hacker up to 100,000 euros per month. The botnet sent up to three billion spam messages per day.

In October 2010, the Dutch police managed to gain control over most of the botnet and reach its creator. Avanesov was put on the international wanted list and was soon detained at the airport of Yerevan. However, the botnet has not yet been completely destroyed. According to Symantec , in 2011, 7.5% of the letters blocked by the company's antivirus contained attachments with the Bredolab virus. It is assumed that Avanesov had an accomplice, known by the nickname Birdie, his identity has not yet been established.

Sources: securelist.com , BBC news
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