Hacker Sentenced in Kurgan Region for Attacking Ministry of Industry and Russian Academy of Sciences

A 40-year-old resident of the Kurgan region has been sentenced to 1.5 years of restricted freedom for attempting to hack government websites. The man carried out the attacks from his home computer, trying to bypass security using an unspecified malicious program.

The hacker targeted several organizations, including the Ministry of Industry, Communications, Digital and Scientific-Technical Development of the Omsk region, the “Center for Information Technologies” of the Republic of Dagestan, and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk regions.

The regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted the investigation as part of a criminal case. Based on the evidence presented, the Dalmatovsky District Court found the defendant guilty under Part 1 of Article 273 of the Russian Criminal Code (use of malicious software).

It is worth noting that the sentence was relatively lenient: the resident could have faced up to four years in prison and a fine of up to 200,000 rubles. Apparently, the amateur hacker’s efforts did not achieve the intended results.

A recent ESET survey showed that one in five people in Russia would not mind becoming a hacker. It seems the convicted individual also dreamed of such a career, but things did not go as planned…