Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha, a Russian man
accused of launching distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks on
Amazon.com, has been arrested this week by authorities in Cyprus based
on an international warrant, the Department of Justice revealed.
Zubakha, a native of Moscow, was
indicted for two denial of service attacks in 2008 on the Amazon.com
website. The indictment, unsealed Thursday, also details denial of
service attacks on Priceline.com and eBay.
"Orders from Amazon.com
customers dropped significantly, as legitimate customers were unable to
access the website and complete their e-commerce transactions during the
pendency of the attack," read an indictment unsealed in
district court in western Washington on Thursday. The botnet involved
requested "large and resource-intensive web pages" on a magnitude of
between 600 and 1,000 percent of normal traffic levels, according to the
indictment.
The hacker is charged with
conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer,
possession of more than 15 unauthorized access devices, aggravated
identity theft, and intentionally causing damage to a computer resulting
in a loss of over $5,000 (4,000 EUR).
Zubakha and his friend claimed
credit for the attacks on online hacker forums, and law enforcement
traced 28,000 stolen credit card numbers to the pair in 2009. For that
reason, Zubakha and his partner are also charged with aggravated
identity theft for illegally using the credit card of at least one
person.
The charges faced by Zubakha carry potential penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 (£160,000) fine.
