Author of the Nasty ‘LuminosityLink’ Pleads Guilty

A 21-year-old Kentucky boy, Colton Grubbs a.k.a KFC Watermelon has been pleaded guilty to authoring and distributing the infamous LuminosityLink RAT (Remote Access Trojan) and has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

LuminosityLink is a malware, which gave thousands of customers the power to access a large number of computers unethically across the 78 countries worldwide. According to federal prosecutors, Colton started selling LuminosityLink on April 2015 for $40 to more than 8,600 customers and marketed it as a genuine Windows administrator tool to manage computers. The RAT is so powerful that it lets the user keep an eye on what the victim is typing on the keyboard. Also, it allows the user to disable the security software at victim’s PC and secretly activate the webcam on the computer.

Colton claimed during the initial plea filings that LuminosityLink wasn’t designed to be used as a malicious tool. However, he told that many of his customers have used the RAT to remotely access and control computers without the owners’ knowledge. Colton also provided assistance to his customers regarding the tool through blog posts and group chats on his website’s forum and HackForums.net.

Colton now faces a prison sentence of 30months, along with the order to forfeit the money he made i.e. $725,000. Also, the Justice of Department has said that he will be under the supervision of the United States Probation Office for a term of 3 years, upon release.