Risk: Informational
Former Kazachstan rocker, Sergey Kazachkov, has been convicted of distributing over 4000 unique viruses through two virus-exchanging websites. Kazachkov confessed to running numerous exchange sites and creating his own malware. Escaping jail, he received a two year suspended sentence and a one year probation period.
This isn't the first time that Kazachkov has been in the media. In November 2004 it was suggested that he was the author and distributor of the Chernobyl virus, which was subsequently discounted by Sophos, as it transpired that Kazachkov offered Chernobyl as a download and nothing more. The Chernobyl virus was a virus programmed to infect PCs' hard drives that was triggered on April 26th 1999, the 13th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Its true author was a Taiwanese student called Chen Ing-Hau, who was arrested in 2000 but never prosecuted.