Russian police authorities arrested 22-year-old hacker, who is allegedly responsible for comprising more than 4.5 million computers – making it the largest publicly known botnet to date.
According to Russia’s Interior Ministry, the hacker used banking trojans to steal 150 million roubles($4.5 million or 3.6 million EUR), from private individuals and organisations.
The young man was known as "Hermes" and "Arashi" in online communities and apparently used variants of Carberp and similar trojans to commit the crimes. The trojan stole users' access credentials and used them to transfer money to bogus companies. Helpers then withdrew the stolen money from cash points. Most of the victims were Russian nationals.
This is the biggest banking Trojan botnet ever to be uncovered in Russia, according to reports, and one of the biggest in the world. Every day, the botnet operator would attempt to install malware on around 1 million computers, which meant that on some days, around 100,000 computers would join the network.
The authorities say that the arrest of "Hermes" and other members of his hacker group was carried out with the assistance of anti-virus company Dr. Web. Most of the accomplices lived in Moscow and St. Petersburg while "Hermes" was arrested in Southern Russia according to the reports.
