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http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20170424/NEWS01/170429974 April 24, 2017 Gregory Seay Connecticut federal investigators are pressing the extradition of a Russian national arrested in Spain April 7 for allegedly running a computer malware network that infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide. Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 36, of St. Petersburg, Russia, has been in the custody of Spanish police since his arrest on a March 24 federal arrest warrant issued in Connecticut while in that country vacationing with his family, Connecticut's U.S. attorney and the head of the FBI's New Haven office said. A federal grand jury in Bridgeport last Thursday returned an eight-count indictment against Levashov for his alleged operation of the so-called "Kelihos botnet.'' Kelihos, investigators say, is a global network of infected computers that Levashov used to, among other things, steal users' logins, distribute spam emails, and install ransomware and other malicious software. According to published reports, Levashov ranked No. 7 on the list of the world's worst spammers by the anti-spam group Spamhaus. The gravity of Levashov's arrest is reflected in that, aside from Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly and the FBI's New Haven Special Agent in Charge Patricia M. Ferrick, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco jointly announced his indictment. The FBI's Anchorage, Alaska, office and Spanish police also share in the investigation. Hartford U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny has been assigned the case. The U.S. Justice Department announced April 10 its efforts to dismantel the Kelihos botnet network. Charges against Levashov, who goes by a half-dozen aliases, include one count of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, one count of conspiracy, one count of accessing protected computers in furtherance of fraud and one count of wire fraud, prosecutors said. The indictment further alleges that during any 24-hour period, the Kelihos botnet was used to generate and distribute more than 2,500 unsolicited spam e-mails that advertised various criminal schemes, including deceptively promoting stocks in so-called "pump-and-dump" stock fraud schemes. |
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The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) collates information and evidence on entities with a history of spamming or providing spam services, and entities affiliated or otherwise connected with them, for the purpose of assisting ISP Abuse Desks and Law Enforcement Agencies. |
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Peter Severa / Peter Levashov Index
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