20 years ago, a hacker who ruined bookmakers and casinos in Britain and Ireland was tried near Saratov

In October 2006, the Balakovsk City Court heard a conviction in a unique criminal case. Nothing like this has happened before or since in Russia. Between the fall of 2003 and spring of 2004, three young men hacked the websites of nine betting companies and casinos in Britain and Ireland. As a result of a computer racket from Russia, businessmen of the foggy Albion and Emerald Island lost about forty million pounds sterling or almost $ 80 million.

The court went to Balakovo because Ivan Maksakov, a 20-year-old student of the Balakovo Institute of Engineering, Technology and Management, was the main one in the trinity. He became the author of several programs for collecting and processing information and found two accomplices on the Internet - 25-year-old Denis Stepanov from St. Petersburg and 24-year-old Alexander Petrov from Astrakhan. They never met in person, they only communicated in virtual space.

A computer genius from Balakovo could use his software to block the operation of any Internet server. Together with St. Petersburg and Astrakhan, he attacked the websites of European bookmakers and casino owners, while offering protection from himself. For this, the three demanded forty thousand dollars. They were rejected and blackmail began.

One of the companies eventually gave up and transferred these forty thousand greens to hackers through a branch of a Russian bank with the help of residents of Latvia. However, the ransomware did not calm down and continued blocking.

Information in the interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee of Russia came from the service of British foreign intelligence. During the investigation, an employee of the British organized crime agency visited Balakovo.

Experts in cybercriminals came to the conclusion that Internet pirates were noted in at least thirty countries of the world, their production could exceed four million dollars. But only crimes against British and Irish companies have been proven.

All three advanced racketeers received eight years in prison in high-security colonies.