The leader of an Internet website catering to hackers, spammers, and virus writers pleaded guilty in London following an international investigation and sting operation that spanned two continents and at least two years.

Renukanth Subramaniam, age 33, is from Sri Lanka but living in London. He’s admitted to being “JiLsi,” which is the alias for the mastermind behind DarkMarket, an online forum and “supermarket” for Internet criminals that’s helped cause millions of dollars in damage and losses.

Subramaniam’s associate, John McHugh, age 66, a Londoner who recruited new members for DarkMarket and who was known by the alias “devilman,” also pleaded guilty. Both men face charges of conspiracy to defraud, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years.

A representative of the court said both men should receive sentencing before 12 March.

The investigation was carried out by the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI, and the U.K. Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). It lead to more than sixty arrests and the deputy director of SOCA, Sharon Lemon, was jubilant at the investigation’s success.

“The key to investigations of this sort is finding the evidence to connect the online persona with a living breathing person,” she said. “Subramaniam went to great trouble to hide his activity. He seems to have thought that carrying data around on memory sticks and using internet cafés would somehow protect him from scrutiny. He was wrong.”

Keith Mularski, an FBI agent, used the alias “Master Splyntr” and pretense of being a spammer to infiltrate the DarkMarket website and organisation. Entry to the forum had to be earned via a “product” of some sort, which could include stolen credit card numbers, a virus, or past exploits.

After he gained the criminals’ trust, he at first assisted in running the forum then, after cyberattacks from a rival criminal gang nearly shut it down, he assumed its operation—effectively handing control of the DarkMarket to the FBI for two years.

Source: securecomputing.net.au