Viruses Articles Article 1 - Computer virus hits second energy firm Article 2 - Online bank robbers face jail time for e-crimes Article 3 - Hacker jailed for selling access to hijacked PCs for-selling-access-to-hijacked-pcs.html for-selling-access-to-hijacked-pcs.html

Article 1 - Computer virus hits second energy firm Computer systems at energy firm RasGas have been taken offline by a computer virus only days after a similar attack on oil giant Aramco. The attacks come as security experts warn of efforts by malicious hackers to target the oil and energy industry. The attack forced the Qatar-based RasGas firm to shut down its website and systems. RasGas, one of the world's largest producers of liquid petroleum gas, said production was not hit by the attack. The company said it spotted the "unknown virus" earlier this week and took desktop computers, and web servers offline as it cleaned up. The report comes only days after Saudi Arabia's Aramco revealed it had completed a clean-up operation after a virus knocked out 30,000 of its computers. The cyber- assault on Aramco also only hit desktop computers rather than operational plant and machinery. Both attacks come in the wake of alerts issued by security firms about a virus called "Shamoon" or "Disstrack" that specifically targets companies in the oil and energy sectors. Unlike many other contemporary viruses Shamoon/Disstrack does not attempt to steal data but instead tries to delete it irrecoverably. The virus spreads around internal computer networks by exploiting shared hard drives.

Article 2 - Online bank robbers face jail time for e-crimes Two men who used computer viruses to steal cash from online bank accounts have been jailed. Pavel Cyganok was jailed for five years and Ilja Zakrevski for four years for masterminding the hi-tech crimes. A third man, Aldis Krummins, was jailed for two years for helping launder some of the cash stolen by the pair. UK police were tipped off about the criminals by Estonian police who suspected Zakrevski was using viruses to target Britons. Cyganok and Zakrevski used the SpyEye trojan to steal login details for online bank accounts. Stolen data was uploaded to servers to which the pair had access. The Metropolitan Police's Central E-Crime Unit (PCEU) said it had seized one of the servers that was based in the UK, which revealed about 1,000 machines had been infected by SpyEye. The seizure led the PCEU to other machines through which the two men were identified. Cyganok was still logged on to one of the control servers when his home was raided and he was arrested. Zakrevski was arrested in Denmark for a different crime, but because British police had issued a European arrest warrant for him he was extradited to the UK in July The PCEU said the pair had used stolen money and credit cards to finance the "large scale" purchase of luxury goods, which they had then re-sold on auction sites. About £100,000 of the money stolen was laundered through online accounts to which the criminals had access.

Article 3 - US jails hacker who sold access to hijacked PCs A US hacker has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for cyber crimes. Joshua Schichtel of Phoenix, Arizona, was found guilty of renting out access to 72,000 PCs he had breached using computer viruses, BBC News reports. Schichtel used botnets, a network of compromised computers used to send out junk mail messages, to gain control of the PCs, and his clients used the machines to distribute their own malicious files. After completing his sentence, the offender will be subject to a three-year supervised release programme, during which his computer and internet access will be restricted. Schichtel was sentenced under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, after admitting to one count of selling access to 72,000 machines that formed part of his botnet. He was previously accused of carrying out botnet attacks on numerous websites, along with four other men, but the case was dropped when the US authorities failed to file an indictment within a court-set deadline.