A Washington State man called Richard Honour who was accused of generatin and distributing a Trojan with the aim of committing theft of computer usernames and passwords, has made a clean breast of distributing the spyware via emails relayed to the users by him about DarkMyst, an IRC chatroom all the rage amongst online gamers.
The FBI started investigating the case after receiving complaints from internet users. The agency arrested him at his home in Washington State, where forensic officers seized evidence from his computer that suggested he had written the malicious code and stolen sensitive data from the victims’ PCs.
The Washington State man also relayed messages with attacked links that are expected to download and deploy spyware on to the recipient’s PCs. The 31-year-old Richard Honour thereafter made use of the infested systems to commit theft of online financial infos and additional personal info with the aim of stealing identity. He pleaded guilty to one felony count of computer fraud. Honour has been scheduled to be sentenced in May 4 in federal court in St. Louis, with maximum prison term of five years besides being penalized for $250,000.
