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A two-year joint investigation involving the Russian authorities, Interpol, the FBI and the UK National High Tech Crime Unit, traced gang members Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov and Denis Stepanov.

They were each sentenced to eight years in prison in Russia and fined close to £2,000 for their part in using threats of denial of service attacks to extort money, often around key betting events in the sporting calendar.

One victim, Canbet Sports Bookmakers, refused to pay a £5,000 ransom note, landing it at the wrong end of a denial of service attack which took down its website during the Breeders' Cup Races. The company estimated it lost £100,000 for each day the site remained unavailable over the event.

Prosecutors estimated the gang launched 50 such campaigns

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across 30 different countries during its six-month life-span.

Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky said that it was 'shocked' at the sentences. 'We've got used to the fact that in Russia, the vast majority of cyber crime cases never make it to court, and those that do end up with conditional sentences and fines.

'The sentence given yesterday in Saratov is clearly designed to demonstrate to the West that Russia is battling against cybercrime, and is capable of working closely and successfully with agencies in other countries. This strict sentence is the first time a cyber crime trial in Russia has resulted in a real prison sentence.'

The company said it believes the gang must have been sentenced under extortion rather than virus-writing legislation because of the length of the jail terms. 'The defendants were sentenced in accordance with Article 163, (extortion, sentence from 7 - 15 years imprisonment) [of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation],' it claimed.

Kaspersky said that the zombie networks used to carry out distributed denial of service attacks are still very much in existence, although rarely used for extortion any longer.

Rather, the criminals using them appear to be bent on less risky, more profitable operations such as sending out spam, adware and ID theft.