Ukrainian hacker gets prison for leading online theft ring
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A Ukrainian hacker who admitted using thousands of infected computers to steal user names and passwords for bank accounts and other online services has been sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Sergey Vovnenko was sentenced Thursday in federal court in New Jersey. He pleaded guilty last year to charges in the case.
Vovnenko used aliases like "Darklife" and "Centurion" to hack into computers in the U.S. and elsewhere. He admitted operating a "botnet" — more than 13,000 computers infected with malicious computer software — that was programmed to gain unauthorized access to computers.
Several of the infected computers were located in New Jersey.
Vovnenko most recently lived in Naples, Italy. He was arrested in June 2014 after an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and Italian law enforcement.
