An accused Russian hacker who allegedly stole thousands ofcredit card numbers belonging to BECUmembers has been arrested in Cyprus on an internationalwarrant.

U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Department of Justiceoffice in Seattle said Dmitry Zubakha, 25, of Moscow, was takeninto custody July 18 and faces extradition to the U.S. to facevarious computer hacking charges involving major Web companiesAmazon, Priceline and eBay.

Zubakha also faces charges of possessing credit card numbersfrom the $10.6 billion Seattle-based credit union that were used to make fraudulentpurchases.

According to the indictment, Zubakha and his co-conspirator,Sergey Logashov, allegedly mounted a denial of service attacksagainst Amazon, Priceline and eBay in 2008. The attacksprimarily disrupted the Amazon site and the ability of customers toaccess the site for hours while the company attempted to deal withthe attacks from a 'botnet,' or web of connected computer, theindictment charges.

About a year after these cyber attacks occurred, law enforcementtraced the possession of more than 28,000 stolen BECU credit cardnumbers to Zubakha. According to the indictment, the credit cardnumbers were used to make fraudulent purchases outside ofWashington and the U.S. The monetary value of those fraudulentpurchases was not released.

If convicted on all charges, Zubakha could face up to 27 yearsin prison. Authorities are still searching for Logashov.

“The investigation culminating in the arrest of Zubakha byauthorities in Cyprus was extremely complex,” said James Helminski,special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in Seattle. “Theapprehension of Zubakha is the result of a concerted effort by theSecret Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western Districtof Washington and the Seattle Police Department.”