A Russian man thought to be responsible for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Amazon.com has been arrested in Cyprus, and now faces extradition to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha was detained on an international warrant on Wednesday, July 18.

Moscow resident Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha, 25, was indicted in May 2011 for two DDoS attacks against Amazon in June 2008, which halted many transactions on the popular site. The indictment was unsealed following Zubakha's arrest on Wednesday, and included separate attacks on Priceline.com and eBay as well, in the same month.

Authorities have charged Zubakha with conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer and related counts. The 25-year-old Russian citizen also faces charges of aggravated identity theft for a separate incident involving the possession of stolen credit card numbers in October 2009.

"These cyber bandits do serious harm to our businesses and their customers. But the old adage is true: the arm of the law is long," said Jenny Durkan, the U.S. Attorney leading the Justice Department's Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement Committee, as cited by AFP. "This defendant could not hide in cyberspace, and I congratulate the international law enforcement agencies who tracked him down and made this arrest."

A DDoS attack basically blocks a Web site by flooding it with data requests. According to the indictment, Zubakha launched such an attack against Amazon on June 6, 2008, and another DDoS attack on June 9, from a "botnet," i.e. a network of connected computers controlled by him and his accomplices. Zubakha and an accomplice claimed credit for the cyber attacks in hacker forums, reads the indictment.

His co-conspirator used the online name "Jjoker" and was identified as Sergey Viktorovich Logashov. According to the indictment, Logashov even went as far as calling Priceline.com and offered his services as a consultant to help stop the DDoS attack. Law enforcement also traced the possession of more than 28,000 stolen credit card numbers to Zubakha and Logashov. The stolen data includes card numbers for Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU) accounts.

Zubakha could face up to 10 years in prison for damage to computer systems and a $250,000 fine, as well as additional prison time for other charges if he is convicted in the United States.