Security News > 2021 > June > US convicts Russian national behind Kelihos botnet crypting service
Russian national Oleg Koshkin was convicted for charges related to the operation of a malware crypter service used by the Kelihos botnet to obfuscate malware payloads and evade detection.
"In particular, Koshkin worked with Peter Levashov, the operator of the Kelihos botnet, to develop a system that would allow Levashov to crypt the Kelihos malware multiple times each day," the Department of Justice said.
"Koshkin provided Levashov with a custom, high-volume crypting service that enabled Levashov to distribute Kelihos through multiple criminal affiliates."
"Levashov used the Kelihos botnet to send spam, harvest account credentials, conduct denial of service attacks, and distribute ransomware and other malicious software."
The Kelihos maintainer paid Koshkin roughly $3,000 per month for his services between May 2014 and April 2017 per the criminal complaint when Levashov was arrested in Spain.
When the FBI finally dismantled it, the Kelihos botnet was known to control at least 60,000 compromised computers worldwide.
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