Cyberattacks by Russian hackers have posed a challenge for U.S. authorities for many years.
On October 10, a cyberattack briefly disrupted the websites of more than ten major U.S. airports. The Russian-speaking hacking group Killnet claimed responsibility for the attack, CNN reports.
Among those affected were the websites of some of the country’s largest aviation hubs, including Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. According to CNN, the attacks did not disrupt flight operations but left passengers struggling to find flight information.
Kiersten Todt, Chief of Staff at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said authorities were monitoring the situation.
Killnet has stepped up its activity since the start of the war in Ukraine. Earlier attacks have included brief disruptions to congressional and state government websites. It also claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Lithuanian government institutions after the country restricted the transit of goods to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
The latest attacks appear mostly symbolic and have resulted in minimal financial damage. Previous confrontations between U.S. authorities and Russian-speaking hackers, however, have been far more serious. One of the most notable cases involved Nikita Kuzmin, the creator of the Gozi banking Trojan, who was arrested in San Francisco in November 2010.
The malware developed by Kuzmin spread through PDF attachments and siphoned banking credentials from infected computers. He later began renting the program to other criminals. U.S. prosecutors described Gozi as “one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history.”
On May 3, 2011, Nikita Kuzmin pleaded guilty and began cooperating fully with investigators. Legally, this marked his conviction date, formally establishing his criminal liability and triggering all subsequent judicial proceedings.
His sentencing date came in May 2016, nearly five years after pleading guilty. At that time, a federal judge in New York issued a formal ruling, setting out the terms of the sentence: Nikita Kuzmin was ordered to pay $6.9 million in restitution. The court also ruled that the 37 months (three years) he had already spent in custody were sufficient to fully serve his sentence.
Citing his extensive cooperation with investigators, the judge ordered Nikita Kuzmin released directly from the courtroom and deported to Russia. The charges against him carried a maximum possible sentence of up to 97 years.
