First time in the world practices, employees of Russia's MVD "K" Administration have eliminated several widely known bot-networks based on the so-called "Bank Trojans".
As of the day of detaining the person involved in their development, the number of infested computers had reached 6 million. Over 150 million rubles had been stolen from accounts of individuals and legal entities. Employees of Russia's MVD "K" Administration had been "hunting down" the criminal for 10 months.
The operative and investigative activities conducted revealed that the criminal activities were committed by a 22-year-old young man who is widely known in the hacker community under the nicknames of "Germes" and "Arashi".
The young man was not only developing bot-networks and massively distributing malicious programs but also personally took part in stealing funds from accounts of individuals and legal entities.
Moreover, for certain commission, he had provided an access to the bot-networks to multiple "Partners" within the entire territory of the Russian Federation, in particular in Ivanovo and Samara Oblasts and Krasnodar Krai. Yet the majority of his accomplices were located in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The criminal's target was computers with the software "Bank-Client" installed on them. To infest them and further steal funds, he used programs such as Carberp of various modifications. Having obtained logins, passwords and digital signatures in this way, he transferred money allegedly on behalf of citizens and organizations to accounts of shell companies. Further on, the funds were transferred to plastic card accounts and cashed in automated teller machines.
The total number of infested computers amounted to about 6 million devices, 4 million and a half computers being the in the main bot-network. Therefore, this bot-network was the biggest one out of the previously known networks based on the bank Trojan programs.
Almost all computers infected were located within the territory of the Russian Federation. Daily, malicious programs had been sent to over one million of people affected, which resulted in over 100 thousand computers being added to the bot-networks on odd days.
It was established that the criminal had managed to steal scores of millions of ruble at once. Together with the accomplices, he had stolen a total of more than 150 million rubles.
With the money illegally obtained, the young man had bought a luxurious house in one of the resorts in Russia, expensive Premium-class foreign cars, and invested money into legal enterprises.
Operative officers of Russia's MVD "K" Administration in cooperation with employees of the Central Executive Bureau of Russia's Federal Security Service and Investigation Administration of the Internal Affairs Administration for the Southern Administrative District of Moscow performed a search in the man's residential apartment and seized computer hardware and software, information carriers and documents testifying to his involvement in criminal activities. An extensive support was provided by experts of the anti-virus company "Doctor Web".
The criminal has been arrested, and a criminal case has been initiated under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Press Service of Russia's MVD "K" Administration