Russian pleads guilty in U.S. to operating Kelihos botnet

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A Russian man pleaded guilty on Wednesday in U.S. federal court in Connecticut to criminal hacking charges stemming from his operation of the Kelihos botnet, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 38, used the Kelihos botnet - a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers - to harvest login credentials, distribute bulk spam emails, and install ransomware and other malicious software, the department said.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the department said.

Levashov was arrested in Spain in April 2017 and the Justice Department announced in February that he had been extradited to the United States.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-levashov/russian-pleads-guilty-in-us-to-operating-kelihos-botnet-idUSKCN1LS31M

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Remember when he was arrested in Spain? He told the Spanish court that he had worked for Putin's United Russia party. I think this might be a big deal.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-botnet/russian-hacker-wanted-by-u-s-tells-court-he-worked-for-putins-party-idUSKCN1C32EP

U.S. prosecutors are seeking a 52-year jail sentence and Levashov, who denies the charges against him, is fighting his extradition from Spain.

He told a court in Madrid on Thursday that he had worked for the United Russia party for the last 10 years.

"I collected different information about opposition parties and delivered it to the necessary people at the necessary time," RIA quoted him as saying.

Levashov provided no further details about his work for the party, RIA reported, though said he was an officer in the Russian army with access to classified information.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-botnet-idUSKBN17N2FD

Russian-state media service RT reported earlier this month that Levashov was arrested in relation to the U.S. government’s belief that Moscow interfered in last year’s U.S. presidential election to help Republican Donald Trump win.

The Justice Department official said, however, that the Kelihos case was not connected to election hacking, and the indictment makes no mention of it.


https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/25/europe/us-russia-extradition-fight/index.html

Perhaps the most high-profile case this year is that of Peter Levashov, arrested in Barcelona in April. Levashov is alleged to have been a prolific spammer with connections to the Kelihos malware, a global network of infected computers under the control of a cybercriminal that was used to facilitate malicious activities including harvesting login credentials, distributing spam e-mails and installing malicious software.

Levashov's extradition proceedings are continuing. Levashov denies the charges again him and is continuing to fight extradition, according to Reuters.