Judge Orders U.S. Lawyer in Russian Botnet Case to Pay Google
Summary: A federal judge found for Google in its 2021 civil suit against two Russian men accused of running the Glupteba botnet, and ordered the defendants and their U.S. attorney, Igor Litvak, to pay Google's legal fees. Judge Denise Cote wrote that the defendants appeared in court not to defend in good faith but to abuse the court system and discovery rules to reap a profit from Google, after they offered to hand over Bitcoin private keys and promise not to engage in the alleged activity in exchange for $1 million per defendant, $110,000 in attorney's fees, and Google's agreement not to report them to law enforcement.
Key Takeaway: Google says it has seen a 78 percent reduction in hosts infected by Glupteba since its technical and legal attacks, but the operators have resumed activity on some non-Google platforms and IoT devices - and the court found the defendants tried to turn the lawsuit itself into a $2 million-plus payout.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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