Blackshades creator sentenced to 57 months in prison

The owner and co-creator of the Blackshades remote administration tool (RAT) was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Tuesday, according to an FBI release. Alex Yucel had pleaded guilty to computer hacking in a federal Manhattan court in February.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, in the FBI release, said that the Swedish national "created, marketed, and sold software that was designed to accomplish just one thing—gain control of a computer, and with it, a victim's identity and other important information." Blackshades sold the malware for roughly $40 and generated more than $350,000 in sales between September 2010 and April 2014.

The malware was sold to thousands worldwide and used to infect more than half a million people. Yucel was arrested in Moldova in November 2013 and was the first defendant to be extradited from there to the United States.