Category Archives: kelihos

Pioneering spammer Peter Levashov is sentenced to time served after 33 months

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A U.S. judge sentenced a Russian man who built a reputation as a global spam kingpin to time served in prison, over the wishes of prosecutors who hoped the defendant would spend more than a decade behind bars. Peter Levashov, known by the online alias “Severa,” who was arrested in Spain in 2017, faced up to 12 more years in prison after he pleaded guilty to operating one of the largest botnets ever. The botnet, an army of hacked computers used for fraud, was called Kelihos, and primarily trafficked in denial-of-service attacks and email spam. Levashov also admitted to running two other botnets, Storm Worm and Waledac, which prosecutors said sent up to 1.5 billion spam messages a day at its most prolific. A plea deal struck in 2018 pegged the number of estimated losses at $7 million, though such figures are notoriously unreliable. Levashov, a 40-year-old native of St. […]

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Russian hacker pleads guilty for role in massive botnet schemes

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The Russian national Peter Levashov pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to controlling one of the world’s largest-ever botnets, known as Kelihos. First indicted more than a decade ago under different cybercrime allegations, Levashov was known as the “Spam King” before his arrest in Spain in 2017. Levashov’s detainment punctuated the expanding American interest in arresting indicted Russian cybercriminals when they leave their home country — which notably does not extradite its own citizens. The battle to extradite Levashov mirrored others that have taken place around the world in the last several years between Moscow and Washington, D.C. “For over two decades, Peter Levashov operated botnets which enabled him to harvest personal information from infected computers, disseminate spam, and distribute malware used to facilitate multiple scams,” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement Wednesday. “We are grateful to Spanish authorities for his previous arrest and extradition.” Levashov’s network operated since 2010 and […]

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Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US

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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, who allegedly went by the hacker name “Peter Severa,” or “Peter of the North,” hails from St. Petersburg in northern Russia, but he was arrested last year while in Barcelona, Spain with his family.

Authorities have long suspected he is the cybercriminal behind the once powerful spam botnet known as Waledac (a.k.a. “Kelihos”), a now-defunct malware strain responsible for sending more than 1.5 billion spam, phishing and malware attacks each day. Continue reading Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US→

Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US

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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, who allegedly went by the hacker name “Peter Severa,” or “Peter of the North,” hails from St. Petersburg in northern Russia, but he was arrested last year while in Barcelona, Spain with his family.

Authorities have long suspected he is the cybercriminal behind the once powerful spam botnet known as Waledac (a.k.a. “Kelihos”), a now-defunct malware strain responsible for sending more than 1.5 billion spam, phishing and malware attacks each day. Continue reading Alleged Spam Kingpin ‘Severa’ Extradited to US→

Spanish court will extradite Russian cybercriminal suspect to U.S.

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Spain will extradite Russian citizen and accused hacker Peter Levashov to the United States, where he is charged with operating one of the world’s largest botnets, Kelihos. On Tuesday, Spain’s high court decided to grant the American request and send Levashov, 36, to the U.S. after he was arrested in Barcelona while on vacation. Operating with over 10,000 enslaved computers, the Kelihos botnet was online from 2010. The U.S. charges that the botnet’s consequences include mass password theft, spreading of malware, millions of spam emails and schemes to illegally profit off stocks in pump-and-dump schemes. From 5 percent to 10 percent of Kelihos victims reside in the United States, according to the Justice Department. “The ability of botnets like Kelihos to be weaponized quickly for vast and varied types of harms is a dangerous and deep threat to all Americans, driving at the core of how we communicate, network, earn a living and live our everyday […]

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Top tip for botnet overlords: Don’t vacation in countries that can extradite you to the United States

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There’s no doubt that a life of cybercrime can earn its most successful overlords a considerable amount of money, but you will always have to live with the fear that you could be apprehended and – if convicted – spend years in prison.
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