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	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:54.702147Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "25221e2891e8ccb3477fc6dac5c610eda1e9259c",
	"title": "Nanocore RAT Author Gets 33 Months in Prison",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "Nanocore RAT Author Gets 33 Months in Prison\r\nBy Catalin Cimpanu\r\nPublished: 2018-02-26 · Archived: 2026-04-05 14:21:18 UTC\r\nUS authorities have sentenced an Arkansas man to 33 months in prison and two years of supervised release for aiding and\r\nabetting hackers by creating and selling malware.\r\nThe man's name is Taylor Huddleston, 27, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The FBI arrested Huddlestone in early 2017, and\r\nHuddleston pleaded guilty in July last year.\r\nHuddleston's case is unique because he was the first case where the author of a malware strain was arrested, despite not\r\nbeing accused of using the malware himself. In the meantime, the US government is pursuing a similar case against Marcus\r\n\"MalwareTech\" Hutchins, the security researcher who helped stop the WannaCry ransomware outbreak, accusing him of\r\ncreating the Kronos banking trojan.\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\n0:00\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE\r\nHuddleston never intended to become a malware author\r\nAccording to Huddleston's position on sentencing and a statement of facts, the suspect said he did not start out his life as a\r\nsoftware engineer with any malicious intent.\r\nInstead, he got into software as a way to sustain himself as a teenager who lived in shabby conditions, never met his\r\nbiological father, and moved countless of times during his youth.\r\nHuddleston's first major application wasn't even malicious. Called Net Seal, this was a program that could be used to secure\r\napplications against software piracy. Net Seal was used with many types of applications, but it became incredibly popular\r\nwith hackers, who used it to secure malware they put up for sale against scammers and crackers.\r\nBecause of his success on the malware scene, and especially Net Seal's popularity on a hacking forum known as\r\nHackForums, Huddleston began actively marketing Net Seal on that particular forum in the hopes of boosting revenue.\r\nHuddleston also created the Nanocore RAT\r\nBut as his ties to the cybercrime world deepened, so did his morals. Two years after starting to advertise Net Seal on\r\nHackForums, Huddleston created Nanocore, which he described and advertised on the same forum as a \"remote access tool\r\n... designed to allow a computer hacker to take complete control of a victim’s computer for the purpose of performing\"\r\nremote operations.\r\nHuddleston advertised and sold the Nanocore RAT on HackForums under the nickname of Aeonhack from January 2014 to\r\nFebruary 2016, when he sold both Net Seal and Nanocore to an unidentified third-party.\r\nIn his guilty plea, Huddleston admitted to knowing that some of his customers used Nanocore for malicious purposes.\r\nBefore pleading guilty, Huddleston's lawyer tried to argue that in many of reported Nanocore infections [1, 2, 3], Huddleston\r\nwasn't even aware of the attacks and that some malware distributors used cracked versions of his RAT.\r\nMr. Huddleston understands and accepts that he broke the law by marketing Net Seal and NanoCore on a website frequented\r\nby users who would likely use the programs for malicious purposes. [...] Mr. Huddleston knows that he has no one to blame\r\nbut himself, and is prepared to serve the sentence this Court finds appropriate. His actions before and after his arrest\r\nillustrate his sincere remorse and dedication to using his talents to benefit society and make amends for his illegal conduct.\r\nHuddleston now works as a carpenter, his lawyers told the court before last week's sentencing.  He also \"enthusiastically\"\r\ncooperated with authorities, his lawyers pointed out.\r\nThey asked for a maximum sentence of six months in prison. He faced a maximum prison sentence of ten years, but the\r\ncourt decided on 33 months instead.\r\nThe FBI tracked down Huddleston during their investigation of Zachary Shames, the author of the Limitless Keylogger.\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nAutomated Pentesting Covers Only 1 of 6 Surfaces.\r\nAutomated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the\r\nother.\r\nThis whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic\r\nquestions for any tool evaluation.\r\nSource: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/\r\nPage 4 of 4",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"ETDA",
		"Malpedia"
	],
	"origins": [
		"web"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"nanocore-rat-author-gets-33-months-in-prison"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775434297,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775826774,
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