Scottish student who made tens of thousands through cyber attack software jailed

A university student from West Dunbartonshire who made tens of thousands through a cyber-attack programme capable of bringing down websites has been jailed for 21 months.

Amar Tagore, 21, from Alexandria earned the five-figure sum from his website which offered buyers a malicious software designed to disrupt corporate and State-run sites.

He supplied a tool used by hundreds of online customers to carry out Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks on systems which forced users to take their websites offline.

A third-year cyber security student, he was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to computer misuse charges and a breach of proceeds of crime legislation.

Police were alerted to Tagore’s criminal conduct after the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) suffered regular ‘DDOS’ attacks at their job centre site in Braintree, Essex between May 12, 2022 and August 18, 2022.

Officers identified a suspect whose mobile phone was found to run a programme called “Myra” which was running two different attack “commands” towards the DWP computer system.

Further investigations traced the “Myra” home page and its IP address to Tagore, with a search carried out of a house he shared with his parents in November 2022.

The website provided different Myra packages that could be purchased, and Tagore also provided technical support to those who bought the software.

Analysis of his laptop revealed 73,347 search references that included the word “Myra”, with another 1,131 found on his mobile phone.

A financial investigation found that between January 2020 and November 2022, the 21-year-old earned £44,433 from the sales of malicious software.

The “normal” package claimed to be for beginners, while the VIP package would give users a “larger network increase and complex vector structures”.

A VIP+ package stated that it had “access to all add-on packages for full accessibility to the network. Specialised with your attack suite to meet any desires.”

Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “Amar Tagore’s criminal conduct had the potential to cause serious disruption to government-affiliated and commercial websites all over the world.

“He made tens of thousands of pounds through the sale of his malicious software and technical expertise.

“But he is now paying the price for his criminal conduct, and we are already taking steps to recover his criminal benefit under proceeds of crime legislation.

“This investigation involved domestic and international partners and reflects the worldwide nature of cybercrime investigations which does not stop at traditional borders.

“COPFS is committed to fighting cybercrime at all levels and to protecting our communities and businesses from the effects of such criminality.”