Guidry was the least culpable of all the Darkode arrestees

May 29, 2016 01:40 GMT  ·  By

Rory Stephen Guidry, 29, of Opelousas, Louisiana, was sentenced today to one year in prison for hacking-related crimes, after police arrested him last summer, on July 12, 2015, as part of the Darkode hacking forum sting.

According to the US Department of Justice, Guidry admitted in a plea deal signed on February 5, 2016, that he participated along with other hackers in 2014 in an attack against a yet-unnamed online server, located in Austin, Texas.

Following a police investigation into this attack, Guidry moved from Liberty Hill, Texas, to his grandparents in Opelousas, Louisiana, at the start of 2015, but didn't stop in taking part in illegal activities.

Guidry built a 5,000-strong botnet and was selling it on Darkode

While in Opelousas, Guidry began distributing malware and using the infected hosts to build his very own botnet. He then attempted to sell the botnet, comprising around 5,000 infected computers at the time, on the underground Darkode hacking forum.

Guidry also admitted to partnering with another unnamed hacker to steal Bitcoin worth of $80,000, which they split in half.

When the FBI dismantled the Darkode forum and searched Guidry's house, they also found 5,000 stolen credit card records.

Guidry claimed he was a "good guy"

Guidry's online handle was KMS, and he used the [email protected] Jabber ID. Security blogger Brian Krebs, who claims he chatted with the hacker several times via Jabber, stated last summer that "this person is perhaps the least culpable," of all the twelve suspects arrested during the Darkode sting in the US.

Krebs says that Guidry played a crucial role in unmasking several members of the Lizard Squad hacking crew, which then led investigators back to the Darkode forum.

He also revealed that Guidry, along with a friend, was also trying to take down Darkode itself, but authorities came in before they could follow suit with their plans.

True or not, Guidry did participate in the forum, and that's what eventually cost him his freedom.