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...

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...

Take down of fifth most widespread 'Virut Botnet'

NASK the domain registrar that operates the ".pl" Polish top-level domain registry has seized multiple domains used for cyber crime activities by spreading Waledac malware distributed by the Virut botnet. According to Poland's Computer Emergency Response Team, Virut was first detected in 2006 and...

Take down of fifth most widespread 'Virut Botnet'

NASK the domain registrar that operates the “.pl” Polish top-level domain registry has seized multiple domains used for cyber crime activities by spreading Waledac malware distributed by the Virut botnet. According to Poland’s Computer Emergency Response Team, Virut was first detected in 2006 and...

Virut and Waledac Botnets Spamming from Shared Machines

In an analysis of Virut botnet samples, Symantec researchers observed the malware downloading Waledac variants, suggesting that the gangs responsible for each botnet may be cooperating with one another through some sort of affiliate program, or, at the very least, that the two threats coexist and...

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,...

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...

The Inside Story of the Kelihos Botnet Takedown

Earlier this week, Microsoft released an announcement about the disruption of a dangerous botnet that was responsible for spam messages, theft of sensitive financial information, pump-and-dump stock scams and distributed denial-of-service attacks. Kaspersky Lab played a critical role in this botn...

Microsoft Takes Down Kelihos Botnet

Continuing its legal assault on botnet operators and the hosting companies that the criminals use for their activities, Microsoft has announced new actions against a group of people it contends are responsible for the operation of the Kelihos botnet. The company has also helped to take down the...

Microsoft Builds Legal Weapon to Take Apart Botnets

The take-down of the Rustock botnet in March gave Microsoft another head for its mantle: two in just the last year. That’s an impressive take for any private firm, and one of a string of actions against bot networks in recent years. But security experts say that the company’s success in building ...

Waledac: March, 2010

Though not nearly as large or important a botnet, Waledac – which counted fewer than 100,000 infected hosts at its height – was notable for the tactics that researchers used to dismantle the botnet. Microsoft worked with a group of researchers at the University of Mannheim, the University of Vien...

Spam Botnets Are Declining, But Likely Not For Long

The size and volume of spam botnets are down over the last year, and much of this can be attributed to the effectiveness of IP-based blacklists. However, this defense method is no panacea as scammers have found new methods like reputation hijacking to circumvent these roadblocks, and bots continu...

Research Reveals Huge Cache of FTP, Email Credentials Stolen by Waledac

Researchers have discovered that the gang behind the once-and-future botnet Waledac has gathered nearly 500,000 stolen passwords for email accounts, along with close to 125,000 sets of pilfered credentials for FTP accounts. The discovery isn’t so surprising in its details, but rather in its scope...

After A Lull, Botnets Back In Business

After a lull in the fourth quarter of 2010, spam appears to be back in full force, according to reports from both Websense, Commtouch and Symantec Corp.Spam volume was up 45% in the first half of January after diving in Q4 according to a Commtouch spam report. Reports show the recently dormant...

Microsoft botnet take down will not stop spam !

A prominent security researcher said he doubts Microsoft's take down of the Waledac botnet would have any impact on spam levels, as the company claimed. "Waledac just is not a hugely prolific spammer," said Joe Stewart, director of malware analysis at SecureWorks and a noted botnet researcher. "S...

U.S. Reigns As Most Bot-Infected Country

The U.S. has by far the highest number of bot-infected computers of any country in the world, with nearly four times as many infected PCs as the country in second place, Brazil, according to a new report by Microsoft. The quarterly report on malicious software and Internet attacks shows that whil...

MS Wins Court Order Against Botnet Waledac

A federal magistrate judge has recommended that Microsoft be given ownership of 276 internet addresses used to control “Waledac,” a massive botnet that the software company has been working to bring down. Read the full article. The Register...

Researcher Who Helped Take Down Waledac Talks Crimeware

Thorsten Holz, researcher at Vienna University of Technology, whose team not only participated in the recent takedown of the Waledac botnet, but released an interesting paper earlier this year, summarizing their findings based on 33GB of crimeware data obtained from active campaigns talks to Danc...

Waledac Botnet Now Completely Crippled, Experts Say

After Microsoft’s actions to take down the Waledac botnet last month, there was some question about whether the operation was much more than a grab for headlines that would have little effect on actual spam levels or malware infections. But more than three weeks after the takedown, researchers sa...