The mastermind behind a virus that affected 30m computers has been caught
The suspected mastermind behind a virus that infected 30 million computers worldwide has been arrested in Armenia, the Dutch National Crime Squad has said.
The 27-year old alleged hacker was arrested in Yerevan international airport last night, after Dutch police made unprecedented moves to shut down the notorious Bredolab network on Monday.
Bredolab botnets are reportedly utilized by criminals worldwide to distribute spam and viruses – and its Trojan has infected millions of computers since its inception in 2009.
“During the takedown of the Bredolab network at a Dutch hosting provider, the suspect made several attempts to take back control of the botnet,” the Dutch National Crime Squad said.
“[The attack] was terminated after three computer servers in Paris used by the suspect were disconnected from the internet.”
Back-door Trojans enable hackers to surreptitiously access computers, modify files, and run programmes – with the potential of stealing confidential company data.
The Dutch police – assisted by several net security firms - took control of 143 servers. The botnet itself was used by police to alert users affected by the virus by directing them to a message here.
The Dutch National Crime Squad added: “More than 100,000 computer users have been warned that their computers are part of the botnet. The High Crime Tech Team has already received 55 responses from users whose computers were compromised.”
Holland has no extradition agreement with Armenia, and are thus considering the possibility of putting the suspect on trial there.