U.S. Takes Down Russian Botnet after Operator Arrested in Spain

On April 10, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the U.S. government was in the process of taking steps to dismantle a Russian botnet responsible for infecting tens of thousands of computers to facilitate criminal activities. The Kelihos botnet, announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco, was responsible for, "distributing hundreds of millions of fraudulent e-mails per year, intercepting the credentials to online and financial accounts belonging to thousands of Americans, and spreading ransomware throughout our networks."