Russian hacker sentenced to 12 years in huge consumer data theft
Data thief says he chose 'a wrong path in life'
A Russian hacker who stole data on more than 100 million U.S. consumers from over a dozen companies has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after admitting his role in one of the largest hacks of a U.S. financial institution in history.
Andrei Tyurin, 37, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Thursday after pleading guilty in September 2019, more than a year earlier, to computer intrusion, wire fraud, bank fraud and online gambling offenses.
Prosecutors say Tyurin helped steal the personal data of more than 80 million customers from JPMorgan Chase alone.
JPMorgan Chase was one of the companies targeted by Andrei Tyurin. (iStock)
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They said Tyurin targeted financial institutions, brokerage firms and financial news publishers, including the Wall Street Journal, from 2012 to mid-2015.
Tyurin operated from his Moscow home, collecting over $19 million as he utilized a computer infrastructure across five continents, authorities said.
In a statement, Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Tyurin “played a major role in orchestrating and facilitating an international hacking campaign that included one of the largest thefts of U.S. customer data from a single financial institution in history.”
In court papers, Tyurin's lawyer, Florian Miedel, wrote that Tyurin only pocketed about $5 million because the rest was merely promised by a co-conspirator who relied on Tyurin to get names and contact information so he could recruit customers for his illegal online gambling business.
Miedel requested leniency for his client, saying Tyurin never stole money through his hacking.
In a letter to the judge, Tyurin said he was “terribly ashamed” of the personal information he was stealing online and believed he had “chosen a wrong path in life.”
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He also wrote that he has changed since a daughter he can no longer see was born four years ago.
In court papers, prosecutors wrote that as investigators closed in on Tyurin and the co-conspirator with the online gambling business, the two “were fundamentally driven by pragmatic considerations regarding the risk of their detection and ultimately their apprehension, rather than concerns regarding relative moral culpability of their use of the stolen data.”
They urged a stiff sentence, citing the difficulty of apprehending someone who operates half a world away.
“As a result of the significant resources required to mount a successful hacking prosecution, convictions are relatively rare. Consequently, the importance of affording general deterrence through meaningful sentences is particularly acute in criminal hacking cases,” according to a sentencing statement signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eun Young Choi.
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Tyurin has been in U.S. custody since he was extradited from the country of Georgia in September 2018. He will be deported once he serves his sentence.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered him to forfeit his profits. Restitution is to be determined at a later date.