Louisiana Darkode Hacker Imprisoned after Stealing $80,000 in Bitcoin

29-year-old Opelousas-based Rory Stephen Guidry was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for infecting computers with malware to steal money and passwords, and of efforts to sell information on Darkode, a hacking forum and black marketplace. Guidry, accused of stealing $80,000 in bitcoin, received an additional three years of supervised release.

Earlier this year, Guidry pleaded guilty to attacking an online server in 2014 in Texas together with a group of hackers. His illegal activities did not end after moving to Louisiana, when he tried to infect around 5,000 computers with malware and create a botnet to control them. He later tried to sell the botnet to a hacker on Darkode, the US Department of Justice said. Guidry also confessed to teaming up with another hacker to steal Bitcoin, which they split in half and exchanged for cash.

Darkode was a private forum where hackers used each other”s expertise to launch malware attacks, exploit servers, and infect devices to control them. Described by Europol as “the most prolific English-speaking cybercriminal forum to date,” it was taken down in 2015 after a joint effort of international law enforcement. However it reappeared shortly after in an invite-only format on Tor, onion routing which allows users to anonymously communicate online.

“Computer criminals will not be able to hide or maintain their anonymity, and they will be prosecuted locally, nationally and internationally,” United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley said. “Through coordinated responses and international cooperation of our law enforcement partners, defendants such as Mr. Guidry who are involved in computer hacking forums will see their organizations dismantled and individuals prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”