Latvian Author Of 'Gozi' Virus Pleads Guilty

A Latvian man extradited to the US where he pleaded guilty to writing a computer virus that infected more than a million computers is expected to return home soon.

Deniss Calovskis admitted conspiring to commit computer intrusion at a hearing in Manhattan and is likely to be sentenced to up to two years in prison when he returns for sentencing in December.

The 30-year-old had faced up to 67 years in jail before entering into a plea-bargain agreement with the US government.

Calovskis admitted he was hired to author the Gozi virus which hit more than one million computers worldwide including 40,000 in the US and 190 at NASA.

Computers in Germany, the UK, Poland, France, Finland, Italy and turkey were also affected.

Prosecutors allege he went online as with the screen name "Miami" and developed code that altered the appearance of banks' websites, tricking victims into revealing personal information.

"I knew what I was doing was against the law," Calovskis told a magistrate judge.

Arrested in Latvia in 2012, he was not extradited to the US until February.

When US attorney Preet Bharara said the case was a "wake-up call to banks and consumers" needing to know that the threat of cybercrime was not going away.

A 25-year-old Russian, Nikita Kuzmin, also pleaded guilty to computer intrusion and fraud charges in Manhattan in May 2011, admitting his role in creating the virus.