Scottish Malware Distributor Pleads Guilty

A Scottish man pleaded guilty yesterday to offenses stemming from his activity as the leader of a international cybercriminal gang, responsible for infecting computers worldwide with trojans.

Matthew Anderson, 33, from Drummuir, Aberdeenshire, was arrested by UK authorities in June 2006, following an investigation into a hacking crew called "m00p."

Prosecutors allege that Anderson, who used the online aliases of "warpigs" and "aobuluz," was the leader of the group and handled the distribution of malware via spam emails.

"This organised online criminal network infected huge numbers of computers around the world, especially targeting UK businesses and individuals," said DC Bob Burls, from the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU).

"Matthew Anderson methodically exploited computer users not only for his own financial gain but also violating their privacy. They used sophisticated computer code to commit their crimes," he added.

Another hacker named Artturi Alm, from Pori, Finland, and a man from Suffolk, were also arrested in connection with the operation, however, the latter was not charged.

According to Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure, a Finnish antivirus vendor, which assisted in the investigation, m00p created several families of malware with the purpose of financial gain.

"We here at F-Secure are happy to get some closure on this long case, with which we've been working for a number of years," the researcher said.

Anderson used his security software company Optom Security as a front for the operation and when police officers searched his computers, they found wills, medical reports, CVs, photographs, and other sensitive documents copied lifted from infected systems.

The trojans distributed by Anderson were capable of activating webcams and pictures of many victims sitting inside their homes were also discovered.

Anderson pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to one count of causing unauthorised modification to the content of computers, contrary to section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act.

Artturi Alm also pleaded guilty in Finland back in 2008 and received a sentence of 18 days in jail, followed by a community service term.