A 28-year-old Ohio man, accused of running the malware attack on thousands of computers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has been arrested - after 13 years.
Phillip Durachinsky was indicted on 16 counts for wiretapping, identity theft, producing child pornography, and other computer fraud violations. The is also the culprit behind the spyware Fruitfly that was installed on thousands of computers from 2003 when he was still a teenager, and through January 2017.
Durachinsky had access to personal computers along with devices at companies, schools, a police department, and a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Energy.
And with his malware, he was able to get access to data and allowed him to upload files, download and take screenshots, track keystrokes, as well as turning on camera and microphone.
The malware was also used to steal people's personal information, including usernames, passwords, financial records, medical records, photographs, internet searches and things that might be considered embarrassing, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland.
When Mashable reported about the spyware back in July, Synack chief security researcher Patrick Wardle said, "[A] hacker built this to spy on users for probably perverse reasons."
This was proven by the DOJ, saying that Durachinsky allegedly watched and listened to people who were infected, and also made an alert feature so he would know when victims of his malware were typing words associated with porn.
Fruitfly has been on the radar of cybersecurity analysts for a while, as it was able to bypass the security systems on computers with Microsoft operating systems as well as Apple computers,.