Russian Hacker Arrested in Spain Friday

UPDATED 4/10/17
A Russian computer programmer, hacker, and developer of botnets has been arrested in Barcelona, Spain, according to a spokeman for the Russian embassy.

According to a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. criminal case against Pyotr Levashov is under seal, so details are not available.

According to the New York Daily News, Russian television reported that Levashov was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks connected to interference in the U.S. 2016 election.

​Pyotr Levashov is also known by other names: Peter North and Peter Severa (which means “north” in Russian). According to Brian Krebs, who writes the blog Krebs on Security, Peter Severa/Pyotr Levashov is responsible for the Kelihos botnet, a spam engine that infected 40,000 PCs, and the Waledac botnet, which infected hundreds of thousands of PCs and sent out tens of billions of junk emails that promoted online pharmacies. (Many of us have received these junk emails, advertising a variety of sexual enhancement drugs.) According to Krebs, Microsoft used “novel legal techniques” to seize control and shut down both botnets. Waledac was stopped in 2010 and Kelihos was defeated in fall of 2016.

According to anti-spam activist Spamhaus.org, Severa/Levashov was the partner of Alan Ralsky, who was convicted of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and violating the CAN-SPAM Act, related to a penny-stock manipulation scheme, in 2009. Severa/Levashov was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department in a related and ongoing investigation.

Some reports suggest that Severa/Levashov is connected to the FSB, the Russian security service that is the successor to the Soviet KGB. Unconfirmed reports also link him to Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian government-owned development bank. 

In January another Russian hacker, whose name was given as Lisov, was arrested by Spanish police. It was reported that he was wanted by the United States for leading a financial fraud network.

Another hacker suspected of involvement in the hacking related to the 2016 U.S. election, 29 year-old Yevgeny Nikulin, was arrested in Prague, Czech Republic in December 2016.

UPDATE: The Independent UK reports that RT, the Russian state-owned news outlet, spoke with  Levashov's wife, Maria Levashova. Reportedly, "She said when she spoke to her husband on the phone from the police station, he told her he was told he had created a computer virus that was 'linked to Trump's election win.'" 
The Independent article can be found here.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-election-hacking-russia-spain-arrest-authorities-pyotr-levashov-barcelona-a7676251.html

The New York Daily News article about the arrest can be found here.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/russian-programmer-reportedly-linked-election-hack-arrested-article-1.3037256
 
More information from Spamhaus.org can be found here.
https://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence/ROK10466/peter-severa-peter-levashov/waledec-kelihos-botnets

Two articles about Yevgeny Nikulin's arrest in Prague can be found here.
http://www.rferl.org/a/russia-hacker-arrested-prague-lawyer-says-innocent/28148793.html
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/27/us-russia-hacking-yevgeniy-nikulin-linkedin-dropbox

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