A Latvian computer code writer who helped create a virus that spread to more than a million computers worldwide may be returning home soon after pleading guilty to a federal charge in the US.
The soft-spoken Deniss Calovskis pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to commit computer intrusion.
The 30-year-old hacker faces a likely prison term between 18 months and two years according to the terms of a plea deal with the US government.
Before the plea, he had faced charges that could have carried a prison term of up to 67 years upon conviction.
Calovskis admits he was hired to write code for the Gozi virus.
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"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.
Prosecutors said the virus infected 40,000 US computers from 2005 to 2012, including 190 at NASA.
Sentencing is set for December 14.
