Kelihos Actions Continue: New Defendant Named
Written by Casper Manes on January 26, 2012
Last September we reported on Microsoft’s actions in taking down the Kelihos Botnet, and the civil actions pending against alleged perpetrators including Czech citizen Dominique Alexander Piatti and the dotFREE Group SRO. We then followed up with a story on the settlement reached and the dismissal of charges againt Piatti. Today Microsoft announced new actions in the legal followup to the botnet takedown.
The Microsoft Digital Crimes unit has continued its investigation into the perpetrators behind Kelihos, and today filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginian, naming Russian citizen Andrey N. Sabelnikov as the alleged perpetrator.
Microsoft indicated in a blog post today that former defendants Piatti and the dotFREE Group have been cooperating with Microsoft, and it is this cooperation combined with new evidence that has enabled Microsoft to amend their complaint and name Sabelnikov.
In the amended complaint, Microsoft presented evidence against Sabelnikov alleging that he wrote code for Kelihos and either created or participated in the creation of the malware. Evidence was also presented supporting the allegation that
Sabelnikov “used the malware to control, operate, maintain and grow the Kelihos botnet.”
The complaint goes on to allege that Sabelnikov registered over 3,700 domains in the cz.cc namespace with the dotFREE Group SRO, using these in the ongoing spread and control of Kelihos.
A statement on Microsoft’s official company blog by Senior Attorney for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit Richard Domingues Boscovich asserts Microsoft’s commitment to continuing the investigation and taking action against all the individuals who participated in Kelihos. Remember that the original complaint named twenty-two John Doe co-conspirators. One can only assume that Sabelnikov is the first, with another twenty-one to be named as more evidence is developed.
Microsoft has also made available more information on botnets and free tools to help clean users’ computers if they have been infected. You can view that information at: http://support.microsoft.com/botnets.
As more information develops on this case, we’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date with continued coverage. Those of you with an interest in the legal actions involving Sabelnikov can read the amended complaint here (PDF, new window).
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The battle against computer viruses, phishing attacks, spam, and all types of Internet-based malwares should be continued by Microsoft for the corporation alone has the manpower and resources to stop them.
However, I’m a bit dissatisfied on why they did not include the original respondents of the case – Dominique Alexander Piatti and the dotFREE Group SRO. They should also be indicted and convicted because they have some sort of participation – even if it’s just minor involvement.
And of course, if procedural law dramas have taught us anything, Sabelnikov will have information on say, two more co-conspirators in exchange for leniency, which will lead to four more names, and so on, and so on. At least, that would be a pretty good result for the boys down in the Windows precinct.