A 21-year-old university student has been jailed for 21 months for constructing and selling a cyber-attack programme capable of causing chaos on company and government websites.
Amar Tagore, from Alexandria, Dunmbartonshire, earned tens of thousands of pounds from offering buyers a malicious software that could disrupt state-run as well as corporate websites.
The software was bought by hundreds of people online and allowed them to carry out Distributed Denial of Services (DDos) attacks on systems and forced users to take their websites offline.
Tagore also offered technical support to people who bought the software and he was sentenced as Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to charges of computer misuse and a breach of proceeds of crime legislation.
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Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “Amar Tagore’s criminal conduct had the potential to cause serious disruption to government-affiliated and commercial websites all over the world.
“He made tens of thousands of pounds through the sale of his malicious software and technical expertise.
“But he is now paying the price for his criminal conduct, and we are already taking steps to recover his criminal benefit under proceeds of crime legislation.
“This investigation involved domestic and international partners and reflects the worldwide nature of cybercrime investigations which does not stop at traditional borders.
“COPFS is committed to fighting cybercrime at all levels and to protecting our communities and businesses from the effects of such criminality.”
Police were alerted to the third-year cyber security student’s actions after the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) suffered regular attacks at their job centre site in Braintree, Essex over a period from May to August 2022.
Police identified a suspect and discovered a mobile phone running a programmed called ‘Myra’ which was running attack commands towards the DWP computer system.
Further investigations then traced the ‘Myra’ home page and its IP address to Tagore, with the website offered different packages which could be purchased.
The normal package was for beginners, while a VIP package would give users a ‘larger network increase and complex vector structures’ and the VIP+ package stated that it had ‘access to all add-on packages for full accessibility to the network. Specialised with your attack suite to meet any desires.’
The court was then told how officers carried out a search of the house Tagore shared with his parents in November 2022 and found him logged into a Myra VI terminal window through two large monitors and using ‘commands’ which allowed another user to use two separate attack methods.
Further analysis of his laptop later revealed 73,347 search references that included the word ‘Myra’, with another 1,131 being found on his mobile phone.
Tagore earned £44,433 from the sales of his malicious software and is now subject to confiscation action under the proceeds of crime legislation.
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