MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The Basmanny Court in Moscow sentenced a group of hackers involved in hacking electronic systems of Russian Railways and S7 Airlines and fake ticket return to jail terms from 10 to 13 years, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"The court found Maxim Matyushev, Andrei Zhdanov and Kirill Kulabukhov guilty of organizing a criminal community, participating in a criminal community and computer fraud. Matyushev was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony, Zhdanov was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison a strict regime, Kulabukhov to 10 years in a penal colony," the judge announced.
Earlier, 29 people were charged with fake ticket refunds for Russian Railways and S7 Airlines. The criminal episodes took place in 2013-2014.
Ekaterina Korotkova, representative of the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor's Office, told TASS that the defendants were found guilty of more than 60 cyber fraud. The criminal community operated in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Novosibirsk, Ufa, the Moscow Region and the Altai region.
The investigation revealed that the young people sent emails with malware to organizations selling train tickets. With the help of malware, they got access to information, login and password of personal accounts of cashiers in those organizations. Through the cashier’s interface, the malefactors entered information about dummy passengers into the electronic receipt and made the payment at the expense of the organization. After that they brought tickets to ticket offices and cashed the money.
"During the existence of the community from 2013 to 2014, its members illegally issued more than 5,000 electronic receipts totaling more than 17 million rubles ($274,857)," Korotkova said.