While many in the West assume that Russian hackers are beyond the reach of law enforcement, the story of hacker Yuri Navilnikov serves as a cautionary tale for other cyber-criminals. After targeting a software developer?s product, Navilnikov found himself facing a well-equipped police unit and a victim with every intention of fighting back.

In January, the Russian software developer Smart-Soft discovered a breach of the copy protection on its internet traffic solution Traffic Inspector. The company contacted investigators from the cyber-crime unit of the Internal Affairs Ministry. Investigators traced the breach back to Yuri Navilnikov, a 24-year old resident of Tobolsk, Siberia who went by the aliases ?Faza? and ?Faza9.?

Tobolsk police located and confiscated the computer used to attack Smart-Soft. Further analysis showed that in addition to Smart-Soft, Navilnikov had cracked programs from other developers including Microsoft, Adobe Systems, Autodesk, ABBYY, and Ahead Software.

The hacker was charged with unsanctioned access to information and the creation, use and modification of harmful computer programs under Articles 272 and 273 of the Russian Civil Code. Faced with the evidence against him, Navilnikov admitted to his crime.

In August, Navilnikov was found guilty in criminal court and hit with a hefty government fine.

Smart-Soft has filed a civil lawsuit against Navilnikov requesting 500,000 rubles (over $20,000) in damages, and the case went to trial in October.

The cyber-crime unit is currently working with Smart-Soft to analyze all the data gathered during the investigation from the owners of websites used by hackers. This information will be used to file lawsuits against distributors and end users of malware for illegal software copying.

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by Olga Kalistratova (few years ago!)