Pierluigi Paganini January 11, 2021

A U.S. court on Thursday sentenced the Russian hacker Andrei Tyurin to 12 years in prison for his role in an international hacking campaign.

A U.S. court sentenced this week Andrei Tyurin (37) to 12 years in prison for carrying out an international hacking campaign that targeted several financial institutions, brokerage firms, financial news publishers, and other American companies.

In September 2018, the Russian citizen was extradited to the United States from Georgia, the man was charged over the massive theft of customer data from JPMorgan Chase and Dow Jones. Some of the other organizations targeted by the gang are E*Trade, Scottrade, and the Wall Street Journal.

The man was arrested in Georgia at the request of US authorities, he was charged with multiple conspiracy counts, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and four counts of computer hacking.

Andrei Tyurin is accused of being the mastermind of the organization that targeted the US financial institution from 2012 to mid-2015. His alleged hacking activities “lay claim to the largest theft of US customer data from a single financial institution in history, accounting for a staggering 80 million-plus victims,”

“Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ANDREI TYURIN, a/k/a “Andrei Tiurin,” was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 144 months in prison for computer intrusion, wire fraud, bank fraud, and illegal online gambling offenses in connection with his involvement in a massive computer hacking campaign targeting U.S. financial institutions, brokerage firms, financial news publishers, and other American companies.” reads the press release published by the DoJ. “TYURIN is charged with committing these crimes with Gery Shalon, a/k/a “Garri Shalelashvili,” a/k/a “Gabriel,” a/k/a “Gabi,” a/k/a “Phillipe Mousset,” a/k/a “Christopher Engeham,” Joshua Samuel Aaron, a/k/a “Mike Shields,” and Ziv Orenstein, a/k/a “Aviv Stein,” a/k/a “John Avery,” in furtherance of securities market manipulation, illegal online gambling, and payment processing fraud schemes perpetrated by Shalon, Aaron, Orenstein, and their co-conspirators.”

The illegal activity is believed to have made over $19 million in criminal proceeds.

“From his home in Moscow, Andrei 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, stealing the personal information of more than 80 million J.P. Morgan Chase customers.” said Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “The conspiracy targeted major financial institutions, brokerage firms, news agencies, and other companies, and netted Tyurin over $19 million in criminal proceeds.  Now Tyurin has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crimes.”

TYURIN along with his partner Gery Shalon and his co-conspirators artificially inflated the price of certain stocks publicly traded in the U.S., then they marketed the stocks in a deceptive and misleading manner to customers of the targeted companies whose information were previously stolen by TYURIN.

From 2007 to 2015 TYURIN also conducted cyberattacks against multiple foreign companies.

“In addition to the U.S. financial sector hacks, from approximately 2007 to mid-2015 TYURIN also conducted cyberattacks against numerous U.S. and foreign companies in furtherance of various criminal enterprises operated by Shalon and his co-conspirators, including unlawful internet gambling businesses and international payment processors.  Nearly all of these illegal businesses, like the securities market manipulation schemes, exploited the fruits of TYURIN’s computer hacking campaigns.” concludes the press release. “TYURIN’s hacking activity included the targeting of companies known to be used for email marketing campaigns, competitor online casinos, and a merchant risk intelligence firm based in the United States, in order for the co-conspirators to monitor the firm’s efforts to audit potentially criminal online credit card transactions on behalf of major credit card networks, and thus avoid detection of their own criminal schemes.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Russian hacker)

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