Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Midweek inwards U.S. federal courtroom inwards Connecticut to figurer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy in addition to identity theft charges.
Levashov, likewise known past times many online aliases including Peter Severa, Petr Levashov, Petr Severa in addition to Sergey Astakhov, has admitted of operating several botnets, including the Storm, Waledac in addition to Kelihos botnets, since the belatedly 1990s until he was arrested inwards Apr 2017.
Kelihos botnet, dated dorsum to 2010, was a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers that were used to pocket login credentials, ship volume spam emails, in addition to infect computers amongst ransomware in addition to other malware.
Russian Hacker Infects 50,000 Computers With Kelihos Botnet
Storm in addition to Waledac botnets likewise shared Kelihos code, but kelihos was the most notorious botnet of all that lone infected to a greater extent than than 50,000 computers worldwide.
"Levashov controlled in addition to operated multiple botnets, including the Storm, Waledac in addition to Kelihos botnets, to harvest personal information in addition to agency of identification (including e-mail addresses, usernames in addition to logins, in addition to passwords) from infected computers," the DoJ said inwards a press release.
All the iii botnets reportedly generated hundreds of millions of dollars for cybercriminals.
As The Hacker News has previously reported, Levashov has likewise been listed inwards the World's Top 10 Worst Spammers maintained past times anti-spam grouping Spamhaus, which gave him the seventh seat inwards the list, at that time.
While initially it was speculated that Levashov was involved inwards 2016 U.S. election hacking, the DoJ indictment unsealed lastly twelvemonth later on his arrest inwards Espana made it clear that the suspect was arrested due to his interest inwards the Kelihos botnet in addition to spamming targets for trying in addition to forcing them to purchase worthless stock.
Levashov was arrested inwards Barcelona inwards 2017 where he was vacationing amongst his household unit of measurement later on an international arrest warrant was issued against him past times the United States. Right later on his arrest, the Kelihos botnet was nigh down past times the federal authorities.
While Russian Federation filed an extradition asking inwards September lastly year, Castilian regime extradited Levashov on the United States’ asking inwards Feb 2018.
Since Levashov has previously worked amongst for Vladimir Putin's United Russian Federation Party for x years, at the fourth dimension of his arrest, he feared that the US regime would torture him for information most his political function if extradited to the U.S. to appear upwards charges.
Levashov on Midweek pleaded guilty inwards U.S. District Court inwards Hartford, Connecticut, to a full of 4 counts, equally follows:
- 1 count of causing intentional harm to a protected computer
- 1 count of conspiracy
- 1 count of aggravated identity theft
- 1 count of wire fraud
Levashov is due to live sentenced on September 6, 2019, in addition to volition rest inwards custody until this date.
