Russian hacker arrested in Spain for bot-herding not election-fiddling

Last week ended badly for Russian hackers. The United States Department of Justice revealed that Peter Yuryevich Levashov was picked up in Barcelona a couple of weeks back for his association with the Kelihos botnet. Levashov said he'd been told the arrest was due to his creation of a virus in some way linked to the Russia's …

[Anonymous Coward]

27 years

As long as it's not politically motivated... this seems about right for a botnet herder... for once!

[Peter2]

Re: 27 years

Only if it's 27 years for each computer on the botnet.

[Sureo]

Ought to stay home...

.... where Putin will give them a medal for service to the state, instead of traveling to the west where they are arrested.

[bobbear]

Re: Ought to stay home...

Ought to stay home...

.... where Putin will give them a medal for service to the state, instead of traveling to the west where they are arrested.

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Have an upvote to compensate for the downvotes from the Putin Fake News and Propaganda Bureau, (forum cleansing branch). It may be a slight exaggeration he'd get a medal, but it's certainly true that Russian law enforcement takes no interest in this sort of thing.

In any event, it's nice to see these thieves getting collared when they stick their necks out from their St. Petersburg rat's nests and lose the protection of mother Russia.. I noticed that Seleznev, (the Russian member of parliament), was "outraged" by his son's recent conviction and didn't appear to think that he had done anything wrong, saying he was "innocent".. Says it all, really.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh oh, a case of *seriously* bad timing..

Seleznev, the son of a Russian member of parliament, was found guilty in August 2016 and sentenced last week.

I vaguely feel sorry for the chap (not much, mind you, given what he was up to) because the political "affiliation" that has, so far, probably kept him out of the hands of the law may now be the root of many, many problems. Now Trump & Co have won the election they will do everything they can to bury that association with Russia (slightly offtopic, that ought to be a lesson for anyone helping that lot), and that includes (appearing to be) taking a hard stance on Russia. If extradited, this chap won't stand a chance because he'll be used as an example.

If his dad is smart he'll have a word with Putin to get a batch of deniable personnel lifting him and shipping him to Russia before the US get their hands on him. That way he'll owe Putin instead and can contribute to the cyber revolution of The Motherland™ (or something equally bombastic and totally not uplifting).

On the plus side, if he gets shipped to the US it'll be one menace less to worry about.

[Blotto]

Re: Uh oh, a case of *seriously* bad timing..

I thought the d was still having his one sided bromance with Putin?

He's probably got that photo of Putin bareback, on his bedroom wall. Mrs D probably bought it for Mr D.

[Stevie]

Bah!

"Seleznev" is now known as King's Knight and is awaiting the right moment for an exchange of pieces as the game progresses.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bah!

No doubt we'll eventually hear of Edward Snowden's asylum expiring and him magically being returned to Russia after they discover he wasn't actually at fault for the POS hacks.

[HellDeskJockey]

Stay Tuned

They may be holding him on bot herding for now but with new evidence that can change. US can and will amend charges as needed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pump and dump scam

"The DoJ says Levashov sent spam urging recipients to buy shares as part of a “pump and dump” scam, among other naughtiness."

How dare he, that's the prerogative of Goldman Sachs and other such purveyors of financial 'products'.

[Captain DaFt]

Re: Pump and dump scam

Sounds like he'd better be careful he doesn't end up like this guy.