Russian Hacker Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison For Stealing Information From 100 Million U.S. Customers

By Abdul Rafay in News On 9th January 2021
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On Thursday, a notorious Russian hacker who stole information from over a dozen U.S. firms and data about more than 100 million U.S. customers was sentenced to 12 years in jail after claiming complicity in one of the U.S. financial institution's largest consumer data breaches.


Since pleaded guilty in September 2019 to machine hacking, wire theft, bank fraud, and illicit online gaming charges, Andrei Tyurin, 37, was convicted in Manhattan federal court.


Tyurin had to complete three years of supervised release in addition to the jail term and has to pay a forfeiture of $19,214,956. Since he was extradited from Georgia in September 2018, Tyurin has been in U.S. custody.

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Prosecutors say Tyurin attempted to rob more than 80 million consumers' data from JP Morgan Chase alone. E*Trade Scottrade and the Wall Street Journal, among other victim firms, have abused other consumer records.


They said that from 2012 to mid-2015, Tyurin threatened financial firms, brokerage companies, and financial news publishers, including the Wall Street Journal in the United States, to acquire the personal details of more than 100 million company clients.

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Tyurin ruled from his home in Moscow, earning over $19 million as he used computing infrastructure on five continents, officials said in a U.S. statement. Attorney's Office in New York's Southern Section.


In addition to the banking industry, from 2007 to mid-2015, Tyurin also conducted cyberattacks against numerous U.S. and international firms. Tyurin was said to have 'used computing infrastructure on five continents,' which he operated from his Moscow home.


In the indictment, Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein were listed as co-conspirators and charged with encouraging stock market bribery, illicit internet gaming, and fraud schemes for payment processing.

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In a release, Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Tyurin 'played a major role in orchestrating and facilitating an international hacking campaign that included one of the largest thefts of U.S. customer data from a single financial institution in history.'


'Tyurin engaged in these crimes at the direction of his partner Gery Shalon, and in furtherance of other criminal schemes overseen and operated by Shalon and his co-conspirators, including securities fraud schemes in the United States,' the release states. 


'For example, to artificially inflate the price of certain stocks publicly traded in the U.S., Shalon and his co-conspirators marketed the stocks deceptively and misleadingly to customers of the victim companies whose contact information Tyurin stole in the intrusions.' 

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Tyurin's counsel, Florian Miedel, wrote in court papers that Tyurin pocketed around $5 million and the balance was only offered by a co-conspirator who relied on Tyurin to get names and contact details so that he could employ clients for his illicit online gaming business.


For his lawyer, Miedel demanded leniency, saying Tyurin never stole money from his hacking.


Tyurin said in a letter to the judge that he was "terribly embarrassed" by the personal information he stole and believed that he had "chosen a wrong direction in life.

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'As a result of the significant resources required to mount a successful hacking prosecution, convictions are relatively rare. Consequently, the importance of affording general deterrence through meaningful sentences is particularly acute in criminal hacking cases,' according to a sentencing submission signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eun Young Choi.


Since he was extradited from the nation of Georgia in September 2018, Tyurin has been in United States detention. When he serves his sentence, he'll be deported.


The US. U.S. He was ordered by District Judge Laura Taylor Swain to forfeit his earnings. At a later date, restitution was to be decided.