14 DAY TRIAL // Two Polish men have been sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison by the Manchester Crown Court for blackmail and unauthorized acts on computers.
The men – Piotr Smirnow, 31, and Patryk Surmacki, 35 – were arrested in London in August. They later pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them.
The crooks blackmailed and launched distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks against a Manchester-based Internet company. However, the CEO of a US online software platform is also at the center of this case.
In the case of the Manchester business, Smirnow and Surmacki contacted its owner in July 2013. They knew each other because they worked in the same line of business.
The criminals told the victim that they wanted a 50% share in the company. They threatened to launch a cyberattack that would disrupt the organization’s website if their demands were not met.
The victim played along, and even agreed to meet the Ukrainian hacker who was allegedly in charge of launching the DDOS attack. However, in the meantime, he contacted authorities.
Later, when the businessman refused to meet the hacker in Kiev, Ukraine, Smirnow and Surmacki launched a DDOS attack that kept the website offline for five hours, causing damage of around £15,000 ($24,500 / €18,000).
In the case of the US CEO, he became involved in the story because he wanted to mediate the conflict between the two parties. The crooks told him via Skype that they had launched the attack because the owner of the Manchester company failed to pay up and hand over operations.
The CEO set up a meeting with Smirnow and Surmacki at a luxury hotel at Heathrow Airport. The extortionists were recorded as they admitted to their crimes. That’s when they were arrested by police.
Check out a video published by the Greater Manchester Police. It shows the conversation in which the extortionists admitted to their crimes.
