Spanish police arrest Russian ‘spam king’

Spanish police have arrested Russian Pyotr Levashov on the basis of a United States warrant. It is not known why the developer was arrested, but the Russian is suspected of being behind large spam networks.

According to Krebs on Security, Pyotr Levashov was active on Russian malware forums under the aliases Severa, Peter Severa, and Peter of the North. He is number 7 on Spamhaus’s top 10 list of the world’s biggest spammers and is suspected, among other things, of being behind the Waledac and Kelihos botnets, and of having stimulated the spread of fake antivirus programs.

Levashov is also mentioned in conjunction with election interference. According to the New York Times, the Kelihos network has been linked to meddling in Russia’s 2012 elections, distributing emails declaring a Putin opponent ‘gay’.

US authorities have told Reuters that the case is not a national security matter, making it not likely that there is a direct link to the alleged interference by Russian state hackers in the US election.