Amar Tagore, 21, of Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, earned tens of thousands of pounds from his website which offered buyers a malicious software designed to disrupt corporate and state-run websites.

He supplied a tool used by hundreds of online customers to carry out Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks on those systems and forcing users to take their websites offline.

He also provided technical support to those who bought the software.

Tagore, a third-year cyber security student, was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to computer misuse charges and a breach of proceeds of crime legislation.

The court heard how police were alerted to Tagore’s criminal conduct after the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) suffered regular ‘DDOS’ attacks at their Job Centre site in Braintree, Essex between 12th May 2022 and 18th August 2022.

Police identified a suspect whose mobile phone was found to run a programme called ‘Myra’ which was running two different attack ‘commands’ towards the DWP computer system.

Subsequent police investigations then traced the ‘Myra’ home page and its IP address to Tagore. The website provided different Myra packages that could be purchased.

The court was told how officers carried out a search of the house Tagore shared with his parents in November 2022. They found him logged into a ‘Myra VI’ terminal window through two large monitors and was using ‘commands’ which allowed another user to use two separate attack methods.

A financial investigation found that between January 2020 and November 2022, Tagore earned £44,433 from the sales of his malicious software.

Sineidin Corrins, deputy procurator fiscal for specialist casework at the Crown Office, said: “Amar Tagore’s criminal conduct had the potential to cause serious disruption to government-affiliated and commercial websites all over the world.

“He made tens of thousands of pounds through the sale of his malicious software and technical expertise. But he is now paying the price for his criminal conduct, and we are already taking steps to recover his criminal benefit under proceeds of crime legislation.”