Pharma Wars: Mr. Srizbi vs. Mr. Cutwail
Summary: Krebs on Security traces the Srizbi botnet's operator, "SPM," who joined SpamIt in May 2007 and competed with Cutwail's "Google" to become the pharmacy program's default spam software provider. The article links SPM's ICQ number 360000 and email mserver@mail.ru to Philipp Pogosov, owner of game company Gameprom, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as based in Thailand.
What you should know: Srizbi infected hundreds of thousands of Windows machines through exploit kits on hacked sites, and its takedown took the McColo hosting shutdown plus a Microsoft removal-tool update to uninstall it. The trail from a single ICQ number to a named company owner shows how much of a botnet's operator identity sits in plain registration records.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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