"Cyber Bandit" Zubakha Nabbed for Credit Card Theft and Amazon Attacks

The 25 year-old Moscow resident Zubakha was arrested in Cyprus based on an international warrant, according to a press release issued by the United States Attorney`s Office. Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha is accused of having conspired to and intentionally caused damage to a protected computer resulting in the loss of more than $5,000.

“ZUBAKHA is also charged with possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, and aggravated identity theft for a separate incident involving the possession of stolen credit card numbers in October 2009″, reads the press release.

In June 2008, Zubakha and an accomplice initiated two DDos attacks on Amazon.com and Priceline.com. The two hackers are charged with preventing the companies` online customers from completing their transactions by using botnet computers that blocked the servers with requests to access “large and resource intensive web pages”. Evidence of the alleged credit card theft the two were also accused of was obtained by the authorities one year later.

“The investigation culminating in the arrest of Dmitry Zubakha by authorities in Cyprus was extremely complex,” stated James Helminski, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service in Seattle.

“The apprehension of Zubakha is the result of a concerted effort by the Secret Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington and the Seattle Police Department. I would also like to commend Amazon.com for its forthrightness and assistance in dealing with this series of computer network attacks which had the potential to adversely impact the company’s ability to serve its customers.”

Zubakha is facing up to 27 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines if found guilty on all of these counts. He is now held in custody pending an extradition decision.