Notorious Amazon, eBay Hacker Arrested

A Russian hacker accused of launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Amazon.com four years ago has now been arrested in Cyprus. The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is currently trying to have him extradited to the US.

According to the DoJ warrant used to detain 25-year-old Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha in Cyprus last week, the Russian carried out two attacks on Amazon in 2008.

Using botnet-based DDoS tactics, his goal appears to have been to shut down Amazon's Internet servers by overwhelming them with fake traffic.

Amazon Faces Massive Traffic Levels

Amazon says that Zubakha's DDoS attacks resulted in Amazon's servers encountering enormous traffic loads, ranging from 600 to 1,000 per cent above normal levels. The attacks took place in early June, 2008. (Source: zdnet.com)

Zubakha, who hails from Moscow, is accused of launching similar attacks against Priceline.com and the popular auction site eBay.

Zubakha may also be responsible for breaching Boeing's online security and for stealing credit card information relating to some 28,000 of that company's employees. For that attack, Zubakha stands charged with aggravated identity theft.

Hackers Looking for Work?

It's not yet clear why Zubakha launched the series of attacks. However, observers speculate that it may have been part of his strategy to win some easy work for himself and his hacker colleagues.

The US Department of Justice indictment indicates that, after initiating his attack on Priceline.com, Zubakha's co-conspirator, Sergey Viktorovich Logashov, contacted the victimized company as an IT consultant offering help with the problem.

US attorney Jenny Durkan says she's pleased this dangerous cybercriminal will finally be brought to justice.

"The old adage is true: The arm of the law is long," Durkan said. "This defendant could not hide in cyberspace, and I congratulate the international law enforcement agencies who tracked him down and made this arrest." (Source: seattletimes.com)

If convicted, Zubakha could face more than a decade in prison and a quarter of a million dollar fine.