Administrator of “Bulletproof” Hosting Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

This week, a U.S. court sentenced Russian citizen Alexander Grichishkin to five years in prison for creating and operating a “bulletproof” hosting service that provided services and technical support to hacker groups from 2008 to 2015.

As previously reported, the hosting company—whose name has not been disclosed—was founded by Russian citizens Alexander Grichishkin and Andrey Skvortsov. They later hired Lithuanian national Alexander Skorodumov and Estonian national Pavel Stassi as system administrator and manager, respectively.

Grichishkin and Skvortsov were responsible for marketing, personnel management, and customer support, while Skorodumov and Stassi maintained the systems and assisted clients, who included botnet and malware operators.

The hosting service also offered clients additional services, such as registering new infrastructure using fake or stolen personal data. This allowed hackers to bypass law enforcement blocks and carry out attacks while avoiding detection.

According to court documents, all four individuals were aware that their activities were illegal and frequently used fake or stolen information to purchase IP addresses and servers for their company.

Previously, 30-year-old Pavel Stassi from Estonia and 33-year-old Alexander Skorodumov from Lithuania had already pleaded guilty. The hosting services they provided to criminals from 2008 to 2015 were in high demand among malware authors targeting financial institutions in the United States.

According to U.S. authorities, the company’s servers hosted malware such as Zeus, SpyEye, Citadel, and the Blackhole exploit kit. All of these malicious programs were used against American companies, resulting in millions of dollars in losses. Ultimately, the former administrators were sentenced to 24 months (Stassi) and 48 months (Skorodumov) in prison.

Now, Grichishkin—who also pleaded guilty in the spring of 2021—has been sentenced. Although the company’s founders faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, the court sentenced Grichishkin to five years. The sentencing of Andrey Skvortsov is scheduled for next year.