Category Archives: Peter Levashov

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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Spam Kingpin Peter Levashov Gets Time Served

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A federal judge in Connecticut today handed down a sentence of time served to spam kingpin Peter “Severa” Levashov, a prolific purveyor of malicious and junk email, and the creator of malware strains that infected millions of Microsoft computers global… Continue reading Spam Kingpin Peter Levashov Gets Time Served→

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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Russian spammer and hacker Peter Levashov extradited to United States

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A year-long battle over the fate of one of the world’s most prolific spammers ended Friday when Spain extradited Russian hacker Peter Levashov to the United States. Levashov, who was arrested while on vacation in April 2017, is accused of being behind a massive botnet that pumped out a torrent of spam emails for profit. He’s charged with fraud and unauthorized interception of electronic communications. Spain’s National Police handed Levashov to U.S. Marshals on Friday. The counter-extradition request from Russia was rejected. The U.S. and Russia have spent the last year battling over his extradition. Russian authorities have accused the U.S. of “hunting” and “kidnapping” Russian citizens, while Levashov’s lawyers say the “political” debate between Russia and the U.S. is tainting the case. But U.S. law enforcement’s longstanding strategy to extradite accused cybercriminals dates back to the George W. Bush administration. American officials have claimed that U.S. efforts to arrest Levashov in Russia were […]

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

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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 when he was travelling with his family to Barcelona, Spain from his home in Russia—a country

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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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Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested

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Authorities in Spain have arrested a Russian computer programmer thought to be one of the world’s most notorious spam kingpins.

Spanish police arrested Pyotr Levashov under an international warrant executed in the city of Barcelona, according to Reuters. Russian state-run television station RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that Levashov was arrested while vacationing in Spain with his family.

According to numerous stories here at KrebsOnSecurity, Levashov was better known as “Severa,” the hacker moniker used by a pivotal figure in many popular Russian-language cybercrime forums. Severa was the moderator for the spam subsection of multiple online communities, and in this role served as the virtual linchpin connecting virus writers with huge spam networks that Severa allegedly created and sold himself. Continue reading Alleged Spam King Pyotr Levashov Arrested→