Russian Cybercriminal Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

By Uzair Amir A Russian national namely Peter Yuryeich Levashov has pleaded guilty to operating the Kelihos botnet, which was used to launch a huge spamming and credential stealing campaign across the globe. Levashov, a 38-year old resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, was presented before a...

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

The Russian man who was accused of operating the infamous Kelihos botnet has finally pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court. Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to computer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy and...

Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Operating Kelihos Botnet

The Russian man who was accused of operating the infamous Kelihos botnet has finally pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court. Peter Yuryevich Levashov , 38, of St. Petersburg, Russia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to computer crime, wire fraud, conspiracy and...

Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US

Peter Yuryevich Levashov, a 37-year-old Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world's most notorious spam kingpins, has been extradited to the United States to face federal hacking and spamming charges. Levashov, in an undated photo. Levashov, who allegedly went by the hacker names...

Spanish Court Agrees to Extradite Russian Spam King to the United States

Spain's National Court ruled on Tuesday to extradite a 36-year-old Russian computer programmer, accused by American authorities of malicious hacking offences, to the United States, according to a court document. Peter Yuryevich Levashov, also known as Peter Severa, was arrested in April this year...

Spammer's Arrest Puts End to Kelihos Botnet

The alleged Russian botmaster behind the Kelihos botnet was arrested while on vacation in Spain, putting an end to a seven-year cybercrime operation that foisted hundreds of millions of spam messages on consumers, as well as a dangerous array of banking malware and ransomware. Pyotr Levashov, als...

U.S. Takes Down Kelihos Botnet After Its Russian Operator Arrested in Spain

A Russian computer hacker arrested over the weekend in Barcelona was apparently detained for his role in a massive computer botnet, and not for last year's US presidential election hack as reported by the Russian media. Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 32-years-old Russian computer programmer, suspected...

Suspected Kelihos Botnet Operator Arrested in Spain

Update Tuesday, April 11: The arrest of a Russian man in Spain was apparently for his role in Kelihos botnet responsible for sending hundreds of millions of spam emails worldwide. A Russian computer hacker and alleged spam kingpin was arrested in Barcelona, Spain, on Friday reportedly over...

Tor Botnet Makes Bad Move to Anonymity Network

MEvade, the massive botnet using Tor as a communication protocol, may have moved operations to the network in order to hamper potential takedown efforts, but according to security researchers, the move just served to shine a spotlight on the botnet’s activities. Rather than hide traffic from bots...

Kelihos P2P Botnet Leveraging Composite Blocking Lists

Kelihos, the peer-to-peer botnet with nine lives, keeps popping up with new capabilities that enable it to sustain itself and make money for its keepers by pushing spam, harvesting credentials and even stealing Bitcoins. According to a number of sources, Kelihos is now leveraging legitimate and...

Peer-to-Peer Botnet Takedowns a Challenge

The FBI, Justice Department and technology companies have had success shutting down botnets that rely on a centralized infrastructure and command and control servers to communicate with bots, steal data or send malicious commands. Peer-to-peer botnets, however, have proven more difficult to take...

Latest Kelihos Botnet Shut Down Live at RSA Conference 2013

SAN FRANCISCO – Down goes Kelihos—again. The third version of the prolific peer-to-peer botnet responsible for volumes of pharmaceutical spam, Bitcoin wallet theft and credential harvesting was shut down before a live audience today at RSA Conference 2013. With the execution of a few commands tha...

New Version of Kelihos Botnet Appears

Researchers are tracking a new version of the Kelihos botnet, one that comes complete with better resistance to sinkholing techniques and a feature that enables it to remain dormant on infected machines for long periods to help avoid detection. The botnet also is using an advanced fast-flux...

Kelihos Update Includes New TLD and USB Infection Capabilities

There’s a little Michael Myers in the Kelihos botnet; maim it, kill it and it keeps on coming back to wreak more havoc. The 2011 takedown of the Kelihos botnet was one of Microsoft’s high-profile success stories against spambots and the like, yet Kelihos was back for more at the start of 2012 usi...

Microsoft Settles With Kelihos Botnet Defendant, Says He Didn't Run the Network

Microsoft on Friday said it has reached a settlement with a Russian programmer it named as a defendant in a lawsuit related to the operation of the notorious Kelihos botnet. The company said that it no longer believes Andrey N. Sabelnikov was the operator of the botnet, but was instead responsibl...

Microsoft Names Two Alleged Zeus Botnet Operators

Three months after initially disrupting the Zeus botnet, Microsoft officials have named two of the people who they think are behind the malware network, a pair of Ukrainians who already are sitting in jail in the UK. From the beginning of the anti-Zeus operation, which became public in March,...

Active Zeus C&Cs Remain Following Microsoft Takedown

It appears that Microsoft’s recent Zeus takedown attempt left some bots behind. Days after the company announced it had sinkholed the troublesome botnet, researchers say that there are still some C&C domains active. FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab’s Atif Mushtaq is reporting that, despite a...

Kelihos Returns: Same Botnet or New Version?

The twice-shut-down Kelihos botnet remains active and continues spamming with a new variant, despite yesterday’s efforts by Kaspersky Lab and CrowdStrike that knocked offline and sinkholed the most recent version of the botnet. According to a Seculert report, the indomitable botnet is using a...

Kaspersky Knocks Down Kelihos Botnet Again, But Expects Return

For the second time in six months, researchers from the Russian antivirus company, Kaspersky Lab, carried out an operation to take down the newest iteration of the Kelihos botnet, also known as “Hlux.” Microsoft and Kaspersky worked together in September, 2011, on the first Kelihos take-down. The...

Kelihos Botnet Resurfaces

UPDATE–The Kelihos botnet, which researchers at Kaspersky Lab and Microsoft disrupted last fall by sinkholing the control channel, has sprung back to life and is using only slightly different versions of the original malware and controller list. The rejuvenation of the botnet illustrates the...