The second developer is also awaiting his sentence

Feb 19, 2015 17:03 GMT  ·  By

One of the developers of Blackshades spying tool pleaded guilty to distributing the malicious software on Wednesday in the Manhattan federal court.

A Swedish national, Alex Yucel (24) was accused of participating in the development of Blackshades RAT (remote access Trojan) and selling it between 2010 and 2013 through an organized network to thousands of individuals.

RAT could activate webcams for spying purposes

The other developer of the malicious application is Michael Hogue, who pleaded guilty in January 2013 and is currently awaiting his sentence, according to information from U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Also awaiting their sentence are Brendan Johnston (an administrator for the Blackshades organization), Marlen Rappa and Kyle Fedorek, both Blackshades customers; all of them pleaded guilty.

The RAT was sold on cybercriminal forums and allowed an attacker to access data on the compromised computer, as well as collect keyboard input and activate the webcam, if available, in order to spy on the victim.

A form grabber present in the malware allowed capturing data from log-in screens or from online purchase forms.

Also on the list of features is the possibility to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

The two developers made the tool available for prices between $40 / €35 and $100 / €88 and it is believed that they made about $350,000 / €307,000 from sales.

Yucel is the first person extradited from Moldova to the US

According to investigators, Blackshades infected more than 500,000 computers in over 100 countries. In 2014, the FBI carried out a global operation to bring down the Blackshades organization, which ended with the arrest of about 100 individuals.

Yucel was arrested in Moldova in 2013 and he is the first person to be extradited from that country to the United States.

He faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and is scheduled to appear in court on May 22. Yucel has the right to an appeal.

According to the original indictment document in 2013, Yucel was charged with a total of five counts: conspiracy to commit computer hacking, distribution of malicious software, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.