The FBI and Australian Federal Police have partnered to arrest and indict an unnamed Australian who developed Firebird/Hive remote access trojan and California-based Edmond Chakhmakchyan, also known as Corruption, who allegedly marketed the RAT, according to BleepingComputer.
With a dozen charges filed against him, the Australian could be sentenced to up to 36 years imprisonment on May 7, according to the AFP, which alleged the suspect's involvement in peddling the RAT on a hacking forum that enabled usage among other threat actors. Meanwhile, Chakhmakhchyan was reported by the U.S. Justice Department to have been involved in RAT marketing and support, as well as illicit Bitcoin transactions.
While Chakhmakhchyan could face up to a decade's worth of imprisonment upon his sentencing in June, he has entered a not guilty plea to all charges, including several counts of conspiracy to promote a device's interception tool capabilities, deliver protected computer-damaging code, and infiltrating devices' systems for data access.
