Security News > 2022 > November > FBI-Wanted Leader of the Notorious Zeus Botnet Gang Arrested in Geneva

A Ukrainian national who has been wanted by the U.S for over a decade has been arrested by Swiss authorities for his role in a notorious cybercriminal ring that stole millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts using malware called Zeus.

According to court documents released by the U.S. Depart of Justice in 2014, Penchukov and eight other members of the cybercriminal group infected "Thousands of business computers" with Zeus, which is capable of stealing passwords, account numbers, and other information relevant to log into online banking accounts.

These captured credentials were then used to siphon funds from the accounts, with the DoJ calling the Jabber Zeus gang a "Wide-ranging racketeering enterprise."

The Zeus banking trojan is believed to have been authored by an anonymous individual who is only known by the handle lucky12345, a WIRED report from 2017 said, describing Penchukov as a well-known local DJ with a penchant for high-end BMWs and Porsches.

A successor to Zeus, known as Gameover Zeus and which functioned as a peer-to-peer botnet, was temporarily disrupted in 2014 as part of an international law enforcement operation codenamed Tovar.

All the defendants have been accused of conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and identity theft, aggravated identity theft, and multiple counts of bank fraud.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/11/fbi-wanted-leader-of-notorious-zeus.html