Russian man who helped create notorious malware sentenced to 5 years

Mark Vartanyan, seen here in 2014. (credit: Mark Vartanyan / Instagram)

A Russian man who helped create and spread the notorious Citadel malware back in 2011 was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison by a federal judge in Atlanta.

According to the Associated Press, Mark Vartanyan will receive two years' credit for time already served in Norway, where he had been living previously. He was extradited to the United States in December 2016 and was arraigned and pleaded guilty to hacking charges in March 2017. Vartanyan had apparently been helping prosecutors with their investigation "from the start."

In September 2015, another Russian man, Dimitry Belorossov, was sentenced to 4.5 years on similar charges. In 2014, Ars reported how the malware was being used to target password managers and financial data.

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