developing, marketing, and selling an infamous remote access trojan
(RAT) called LuminosityLink has now been sentenced to 30 months in
prison.
According to a press
release[1] published Monday by U.S.
Attorney’s Office, Colton Grubbs, who used online moniker ‘KFC
Watermelon,’ was pleaded guilty for three counts–unlawfully
accessing computers in furtherance of a criminal act, money
laundering, and illegal removal of property to prevent its lawful
seizure.
First surfaced in April 2015, the LuminosityLink
RAT (Remote Access Trojan), also known as Luminosity, was
a hacking tool that was sold for $40, marketing itself as a
legitimate tool for Windows administrators to “manage a large
number of computers concurrently.”
[2]
However, in reality, LuminosityLink was designed to be a dangerous,
remote access trojan that among other malicious features, allowed
Grubbs’ customers to:
- Record the keys that victims pressed on their keyboards
- Surveil victims using their computers’ cameras and
microphones - View and download the computers’ files
- Steal names and passwords used to access websites
In his initial plea filing, Grubbs claimed that the LuminosityLink
RAT was never intended to be used maliciously, and was a legitimate
tool for system administrators.
However, in a plea agreement signed a year ago, Grubbs admitted
that his malware would be used by some customers to remotely access
and control computers without their victims’ computers without the
victims’ knowledge or consent.
Grubbs also admitted of offering assistance to his customers to
use the LuminosityLink RAT through posts and group chats on his own
luminosity.link website and public internet forum
HackForums.net.
According to his last year plea agreement, the LuminosityLink RAT
was sold for $39.99 apiece to more than 6,000 individuals, who used
it maliciously to gain unauthorized access to thousands of
computers across 78 countries worldwide.
“Our modern society is dependent on computers, mobile devices, and
the use of the internet,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “People simply have
to have confidence in their ability to use these modern instruments
to transact their business, privately communicate, and securely
maintain their information.”
“It is essential that we vigorously prosecute those who erode that
confidence and illicitly gain access to computer systems and the
electronic information of others. Everyone benefits when this
deceitful conduct is discovered, investigated, and prosecuted.”
ordered to serve 85 percent of his prison sentence under federal
law, and upon release, he will be under the supervision of the
United States Probation Office for a term of 3 years.
Besides his sentence of incarceration, Grubbs has also been
ordered to forfeit the money he made from his crimes, including 114
bitcoins (valued at over $725,000 today) which were seized by the
FBI.
References
- ^
press release
(www.justice.gov) - ^
LuminosityLink RAT
(thehackernews.com)
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