Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov and Denis Stepanov, accused of extorting $4 million from UK companies, including several online bookmakers, have been sentenced to eight years in prison each.
The three hackers collected information about online bookmakers using spy software designed by 20-year-old Maksakov and then demanded ransoms, threatening to crash the bookmakers\’ websites with distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks if they did not comply.
Prosecutors said the gang was found responsible of 54 DDoS attacks across 30 countries during a six-month period.
British bookmakers have always denied meeting ransom demands. Those hit by DDoS attacks include Blue Square, Canbet, Coral Eurobet, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Paddy Power, Sporting Index, Betdaq, Betfair, Totesport and VCbet.
Calculators
