Alex Bessell, 21, from Toxteth, Liverpool, (pic outside Birmingham Magistrates Court on October 30) admitted orchestrating the ‘persistent, determined and sophisticated’ attacks on major companies aged 14
A Deliveroo driver who stole more than £500,000 by hacking the websites of Google, Skype and Pokemon from his bedroom has been jailed for two years.
Alex Bessell, 21, from Toxteth, Liverpool, admitted orchestrating the ‘persistent, determined and sophisticated’ attacks on major companies at the age of just 14.
A court heard he used Distributed Denial of Service (DdOS) to crash systems from the comfort of his own bedroom leaving users unable to access them.
This method involves attacking a machine or network from a variety of different sources, overloading the target and making it unusable.
The Deliveroo driver was also still a teenager when he raked in over $700,000 (£504,000) after setting up a website ‘Aiobuy’ that sold harmful IT viruses.
He was found in possession of cocaine at the time of his arrest.
More than 9,000 products were offered on the site, including remote administration tools, Botnet tools, crypters, booter access and other malware and illegal items.
Cyber-crime investigators discovered around 35,000 purchases had been made through Aiobuy and Bessell had attracted more than 26,000 registered customers.
Bessell admitted nine counts of various cybercrime offences and was jailed for two years at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.
Judge Roderick Henderson said: ‘You are of previous good character before these events.
‘The first block of offences were committed when you were 14 or 15 years old, the second block when you were 17 to 20 years old – having had your card marked in the clearest way by being arrested and the knowledge prosecution was impending and probable.
‘This offending in both blocks involved dealing with malware.
‘It made a significant amount of money but the seriousness here cannot in any sense be measured in direct financial terms.
‘You were running a business giving people tools to interfere unlawfully with other peoples’ computers – it was on a large scale, carried out over a long period.
‘It was persistent, skilled and sophisticated. (You were at) the head of operations. There is plainly a financial element to it.
‘It is clear from the authorities and from good sense that such behaviour which causes enormous damage to very large numbers of people is not easily detectable and when it is detected, involved enormous expense to be investigated and resolved.
‘It has to be immediate custody for this kind of offending.’
The court heard Bessell also designed a ‘crypter’ software package that hides bugs from computer users and makes them invisible to anti-virus systems.
The former computer programmer gained unauthorised access to data with intent to facilitate fraud by obtaining 750 usernames and passwords.
He additionally conspired with others to build a ‘Galaxy JDB’ hacking tool and supplying it to others for use.
Bessell also admitted entering into a money-laundering agreement between 2012 and 2013, knowing it would facilitate the gain of criminal property.
The Deliveroo driver was also still a teenager when he raked in over $700,000 (£504,000) after setting up a website ‘Aiobuy’ that sold harmful IT viruses
Prosecutor William Harbage QC said: ‘As with so many cases of this type, Bessell was very young at the time the first group of offences occurred.
‘The Crown would describe Bessell as a persistent, determined and sophisticated criminal.
‘He is a significant offender involved in the large scale supply and distribution of computer malware, on an international platform, to other cyber criminals.
‘Despite his youth, Bessell has displayed specialist skills and knowledge to create sophisticated escrow and payment platforms.
‘Command and control logs show that on 142 occasions Bessell personally commanded a computer to download and execute an infected file and thus infect another target computer.
‘It can also spread infection by assuming the users’ rights and sending tweets on Twitter and posts on Facebook, advertising sensationalist links that are in fact scripts to infect machines.
‘The ultimate aim appears to be spreading infection, and maximising the amount of ‘bots’ available.
‘A conservative estimate of the total number of confirmed infected computers is 9,083.
‘The Aiobuy website assisted in the sale of illegal items of malware by providing an escrow service between buyer and seller.
‘Data recovered shows that Aiobuy had over 9,000 items for sale, virtually all illegal items or services.
‘Over 25,000 usernames, emails and IP addresses, one million visitors to the website, over $3 million was processed by the website through PayPal or in cryptocurrencies and over $700,000 was taken in completed sales.
‘This was not peanuts by any means.
‘Ninety-odd Bitcoin is now worth approximately $1 million – we don’t suggest he has made that sort of profit, $129,000 was made personally by Bessell from his Aiobuy activities.
‘It is not clear at present how Bessell spent this money – the Crown surmise that the fact that Bessell was in possession of cocaine at the time of his arrest may provide a clue.
Jonathan Duffy, defending, said: ‘The key mitigation in Alex Bessell’s case is the fact of his youth – he is only 21 now, 14 at the time the offending started.
‘Initially he was a somewhat isolated child, very few friends – spent long hours isolated in his bedroom.
‘His main contact socially with the outside world was via the internet.
‘He found himself seduced by others when young and got involved in activities when in any other parts of his life he would never dreamt of getting involved in.
‘He became more and more excited by the prospect and began to test himself and explore the extent of his expertise and that unfortunately has led to him being in the position he is now.’