When A Good Guy Turns Bad | 'Kelihos' Botnet Master

[Ceyfer √]

Microsoft today named a Russian software developer as the man who controlled Kelihos, a botnet linked to spam messages, ID-theft attacks, pump-and-dump stock scams and websites promoting the sexual exploitation of children.

Interestingly, Microsoft said Sabelnikov “worked as a software engineer and project manager at a company that provided firewall, antivirus and security software.” The company did not identify the antivirus vendor.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Sabelnikov worked for two Russian companies that specialize in security, including the antivirus firm Agnitum, for the last six years.

Agnitum, which is based in St. Petersburg, develops and sells a Windows antivirus product called OutPost Antivirus Pro as well as a personal firewall for Windows PCs. A company spokesman confirmed today that Sabelnikov worked for the firm from September 2005 until November 2008.

Sabelnikov held a number of tiles, ending his time with Agnitum as a project manager responsible for everything from "designing the product architecture" to "implementing ... critical parts of code."

In an emailed reply to questions, the Agnitum spokesman said that Sabelnikov "resigned by his own will in late 2008."

From November 2008 until December 2011, Sabelnikov worked for another Russian company, Retunil, which also markets security software. Returnil's primary product, Virtual System Pro, clones an existing copy of Windows in a virtual machine as a way to protect users from malware.

'Kelihos' Botnet -controlled an estimated 45,000 compromised computers and had allegedly sent massive amounts of spam -- as many as 4 billion messages daily -- to users worldwide.

More here & here | Zero Day Blog | Computerworld

[ted]

he actually denies these accusations it will be interesting to see how this story materialises
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757150
thanks for info

[Ceyfer √]

he actually denies these accusations it will be interesting to see how this story materialises
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16757150
thanks for info

Since taking down the Kelihos botnet with our partners Kyrus Inc. and Kaspersky Labs in September, the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit has continued to actively investigate the case and pursue new leads with the goal of holding the perpetrators behind the botnet accountable for their actions.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft...ihos-case.aspx

MS and its security partners' accusation on him is a hard to evade one.

[Bearcat]

Microsoft today named a Russian software developer as the man who controlled Kelihos, a botnet linked to spam messages, ID-theft attacks, pump-and-dump stock scams and websites promoting the sexual exploitation of children.

If that turns out to be true, I hope they nail that scumbags worthless hide to the wall!

[Raymond]

This is the first time that I hear that people using bots to "pump-and-dump stock".

[safeguy]

Interesting. I won't make any baseless judgments and just leave it to the court to decide...