美國判處Gozi病毒製作者

近10年前，電腦安全專家發現了一種新型惡意軟件，可使美國和歐洲的100多萬台電腦受到感染，造成的損失高達數千萬美元。

星期一，美國一家聯邦法院對俄羅斯公民庫茲敏進行宣判，他的罪名包括陰謀，銀行欺詐、創造Gozi軟件入侵電腦並把這種軟件賣給黑客，使他們得以盜取銀行賬户中的存款。

檢察官説，庫茲敏犯罪完全是出於貪婪，並促成了一種新型網絡犯罪，而這種犯罪近年來變得更加猖獗。

檢察人員説，電腦安全專家確認，5200多人的一萬個賬户被入侵，涉及數百家公司賬户的登錄信息。被感染的電腦裏也包括美國航空航天局的數百台電腦。

庫茲敏説，他沒有參與盜取銀行賬户信息，而是靠出租Gozi軟件，然後從贓款中提成。法庭文件顯示，估計庫茲敏通過這種方式獲利至少25萬美元。

法庭宣佈，庫茲敏被關押的37個月就是他的刑期，他還被罰款690萬美元，相當於兩家美國銀行和一家歐洲銀行受到的損失。Nearly a decade ago, computer security experts found a new kind of malicious software that would eventually infect more than 1 million computers in the United States and Europe and cause tens of millions of dollars in damages.

On Monday, a U.S. federal court sentenced Russian national Nikita Kuzmin on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud and computer intrusion for creating the software, named Gozi, and selling it to hackers who used it to steal money from bank accounts.

Prosecutors said Kuzmin "committed this crime purely out of greed" and helped pioneer a new kind of cybercrime that has become more prevalent in recent years.

Prosecutors said security experts identified 10,000 account records from more than 5,200 people, which included login information for accounts with hundreds of companies. The infected computers included hundreds at the U.S. space agency NASA.

Kuzmin said he did not partake in stealing bank account information himself. He made money by renting use of Gozi to others and by collecting a portion of whatever they later stole with it. According to court documents, Kuzmin estimated he made at least $250,000.

The court said Kuzmin's punishment is the 37 months he has already spent in prison, as well as paying $6.9 million that authorities have identified as the losses incurred by two banks in the U.S. and one in Europe.