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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Accused Russian RSOCKS Botmaster Arrested, Requests Extradition to U.S.

Summary: Denis Kloster, a 36-year-old Russian identified by KrebsOnSecurity as the apparent owner of the RSOCKS proxy botnet, was arrested in Bulgaria in June at the request of U.S. authorities and was granted extradition after telling a Bulgarian court, "America is looking for me because I have enormous information and they need it." RSOCKS, launched in 2013 and shut down in June 2022, was a collection of millions of hacked devices sold as proxies to cybercriminals, initially targeting IoT devices including industrial control systems, time clocks, routers, and smart garage door openers before expanding to Android devices and conventional computers.

What's compelling: Kloster also claimed ownership of the RUSdot spam forum, the successor to Spamdot, and the article notes that malicious email sent via compromised computers remains one of the biggest sources of malware infections leading to data breaches and ransomware attacks - so the accused operator of millions of hijacked devices now sits in a position to name names in the spam and malware community, with charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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