Russian ‘spam king’ who ran Kelihos botnet pleads guilty

Russian Pyotr Levashov, who was arrested in Spain in April 2017, has pleaded guilty to hacking and identity theft in a US court. The man used the Kelihos botnet for this.

The US Department of Justice announces that Levashov admits guilt on several fronts. The judge will hand down a sentence on September 6, 2019, Levashov will be held until his assessment.

According to the ministry, the plea is related to the activities that Levashov carried out with the Kelihos botnet. The Russian used it to send spam, obtain login details and install malware on computers worldwide. He was also a member of forums dealing in stolen identities, credit card information and cybercrime tools.

Levashov has operated botnets for more than 20 years, according to the US State Department. He was active on Russian malware forums under the names Severa, Peter Severa and Peter of the North, Krebs on Security wrote earlier when the Russian was arrested in Spain last year, on the basis of an American warrant. Levashov was extradited to the United States in February this year

The Kelihos botnet is said to have infected at least 50,000 computers at the time of the arrest. The botnet made headlines in 2011, among other things, when Microsoft took it offline. Later, the botnet came back in a new form.