The Russian hacker known as Nastra, who was later identified as Alexander Zhukov was arrested by Bulgarian authorities earlier this month at the request of US authorities. Zhukov was linked to an ad fraud campaign that was shut down by Google late last month which netted over $7 million for the hacker. According to reports, Zhukov operated 50 servers which he rented out to others and allowed them to infiltrate video ad views. U.S. authorities are currently working with Bulgarian authorities to extradite Zhukov to the U.S. for trial, but Zhukov is attempting to fight it. Zhukov’s operation was exposed by his own anger when he acted out after a deal with a customer went wrong. After the deal went south, Zhukov maxed out the abilities of all of his servers against that customer’s video inventory, leading to millions of views which caught the attention of advertising networks. If Zhukov is found guilty in U.S. courts, he will face up to 20 years in prison. Nastra was found in Varna, Bulgaria where he had been living since 2010.
