Police Arrest Alleged ZeuS Botmaster “bx1”
Summary: Hamza Bendelladj, a 24-year-old Algerian national, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport while in transit from Malaysia to Egypt, and Thai investigators said he was blamed by the FBI for hacking accounts at 217 financial institutions worldwide. Krebs identified him as the hacker nicknamed "bx1," who had contacted the reporter via MSN instant message in 2011 claiming to run ZeuS and SpyEye botnets, and who matched John Doe 19/20 in Microsoft's 2012 suit against 39 alleged ZeuS botmasters.
Key Takeaway: The FBI declined to confirm the Thai police's claim that Bendelladj was one of its most-wanted, and the reported "10 to 20 million dollars" from a single transaction went unchallenged in the source's own comment thread - a reminder that arrest narratives and dollar figures often outrun what investigators will actually stand behind.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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