Phoenix Exploit Kit Author Arrested In Russia?
Summary: The author of the Phoenix Exploit Kit, who used the nickname AlexUdakov on underground forums, posted that Russia's Federal Security Service arrested him for distributing malicious software and illegally possessing firearms, including two AKS-74U assault rifles, a Glock, a TT and a PM. The Phoenix kit sold for a base price of $2,200 and booby-trapped hacked websites to push drive-by downloads onto Windows visitors running outdated Java, Flash and Reader plugins.
Bottom line: The kit's own author was indicted under three articles of the Russian Penal Code after a controlled purchase paid through WebMoney and a forensic exam that classified the exploit pack as malware - a reminder that the commercial crimeware trade runs on named individuals, priced licenses and domain-locked builds, not anonymous abstractions.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
- Related
- TSMC employee data breach linked to cloud provider Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026Data Breach at La Poste Subsidiary Maileva Affects 22 Million People in France Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026City of Osaka warns of data breach impacting 1 million as Japan reels from dozens of cyber incidents Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026