Alleged Ringleader In International Cyber Scam Pleads Guilty

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An Estonian citizen who was portrayed as a ringleader in an international cyber scam has pleaded guilty.

Vladimir Tsastsin entered the plea Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The plea came in a scheme that authorities said infected more than 4 million computers in over 100 countries with software that disabled anti-virus protections and steered users to websites they did not choose. Sentencing was set for Oct. 14.

Prosecutors say more than a half-million computers were infected in the United States. They included computers belonging to government agencies including NASA.

Prosecutors said infected computers also belonged to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, commercial businesses and individuals.

They said Tsastsin and co-conspirators profited by receiving payments due to higher Internet traffic after they digitally hijacked Internet searches and re-routed computers to certain websites and advertisements.

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