FSB officers of in Smolensk region, Russia, stopped illegal activities of a self-taught hacker. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to imprisonment for 10 months.

A 47-year-old individual entrepreneur, who lived in a small village, a part of Kasplya rural settlement in Smolensk region, was found guilty of using malware for hacker attacks on federal state scientific institutions.

In September 2020, in order to carry out a hacker attack, he uploaded malicious software to the websites of the State Special Astrophysical Observatory and the Voevodsky Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion. Why a resident of a village in the Smolensk region attacked scientific institutions located in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic (the observatory) and the city of Novosibirsk (the research institute) is not reported.

On June 2 this year, the Smolensk District Court found the man guilty under Part 1 of Art. 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs.” The verdict – restriction of freedom for 10 months – came into force on June 12.