Accused Russian RSOCKS Botmaster Arrested, Requests Extradition To US (krebsonsecurity.com) 42
A 36-year-old Russian man recently identified by KrebsOnSecurity as the likely proprietor of the massive RSOCKS botnet has been arrested in Bulgaria at the request of U.S. authorities. At a court hearing in Bulgaria this month, the accused hacker requested and was granted extradition to the United States, reportedly telling the judge, "America is looking for me because I have enormous information and they need it." From the report: On June 22, KrebsOnSecurity published Meet the Administrators of the RSOCKS Proxy Botnet, which identified Denis Kloster, a.k.a. Denis Emelyantsev, as the apparent owner of RSOCKS, a collection of millions of hacked devices that were sold as "proxies" to cybercriminals looking for ways to route their malicious traffic through someone else's computer. A native of Omsk, Russia, Kloster came into focus after KrebsOnSecurity followed clues from the RSOCKS botnet master's identity on the cybercrime forums to Kloster's personal blog, which featured musings on the challenges of running a company that sells "security and anonymity services to customers around the world." Kloster's blog even included a group photo of RSOCKS employees.
The Bulgarian news outlet 24Chasa.bg reports that Kloster was arrested in June at a co-working space in the southwestern ski resort town of Bansko, and that the accused asked to be handed over to the American authorities. "I have hired a lawyer there and I want you to send me as quickly as possible to clear these baseless charges," Kloster reportedly told the Bulgarian court this week. "I am not a criminal and I will prove it in an American court." 24Chasa said the defendant's surname is Emelyantsev and that he only recently adopted the last name Kloster, which is his mother's maiden name. As KrebsOnSecurity reported in June, Kloster also appears to be a major player in the Russian email spam industry. [...] Kloster turned 36 while awaiting his extradition hearing, and may soon be facing charges that carry punishments of up to 20 years in prison.
The Bulgarian news outlet 24Chasa.bg reports that Kloster was arrested in June at a co-working space in the southwestern ski resort town of Bansko, and that the accused asked to be handed over to the American authorities. "I have hired a lawyer there and I want you to send me as quickly as possible to clear these baseless charges," Kloster reportedly told the Bulgarian court this week. "I am not a criminal and I will prove it in an American court." 24Chasa said the defendant's surname is Emelyantsev and that he only recently adopted the last name Kloster, which is his mother's maiden name. As KrebsOnSecurity reported in June, Kloster also appears to be a major player in the Russian email spam industry. [...] Kloster turned 36 while awaiting his extradition hearing, and may soon be facing charges that carry punishments of up to 20 years in prison.
Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Accused Russian RSOCKS Botmaster Arrested, Requests Extradition To US [from Bulgaria]
Re:Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:5, Interesting)
It tells you something of the state of Russia that an American jail is preferable to being conscripted into the Russian army.
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Worse, a US jail is better than being in Russia with a chance to be conscripted. It's not even a given that he gets conscripted, but simply BEING in Russia looks like a worse fate than spending time in an US jail.
And US jails ain't exactly known for their holiday resort qualities.
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I would rather be in an American jail than the Russian army as a conscript 100%.
Instead of using drones to see if anyone is in the trenches, the send the conscripts out to check. If the conscripts get shot, there are still people in the trenches.
And don't even bring up the hazing. Or that Kadyrovites are being brought in to shoot you in the back if you retreat.
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Don't forget, if you are in a Russian prison you are offered a chance to serve in Ukraine for 6 months (well paid, for a Russian, as I understand) and return and be declared cleared of all charges.
Presumably if you are in prison and use this scheme, and survive 6 months to return, you are now fully trained on how to use various weapons and have made contact with other interesting characters with interesting resources, all ready for your next scheme in Russia, as a trained, armed and potentially dangerous pe
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> that an American jail is preferable to being conscripted into the Russian army.
When in history has this ever not been the case?
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It tells you something of the state of Russia that an American jail is preferable to being conscripted into the Russian army.
It also tells you something that a man who provided government transparency to Americans, sought asylum from persecution in Russia.
Re:Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:4, Interesting)
It tells you something of the state of Russia that an American jail is preferable to being conscripted into the Russian army.
It only tells that Russia is in an international armed conflict where one expects higher mortality rate than in a US prison.
US prisoner:
* mortality rate 0.344% per annum https://www.prisonpolicy.org/b... [prisonpolicy.org] (2018) -- you can die if you are unlucky or ill tempered
* some risk of being raped
* high risk of emotional stress
Russian conscript:
* mortality 25% per 6 months -- you will die except if you are very lucky, very well trained, very good physical condition (using Ukrainian numbers: 56,300 deaths, initial forces 190,000 soldiers according to Wikipedia; even accounting that Ukrainian over-estimates the enemy losses, one would need an error factor of 100 to inverse the rational decision, which is obviously not the case)
* according to reports, sexual aggression happens as part of the system in the Russian army
* permanent war trauma guaranteed
* risk of being ordered to commit war crimes and later going to jail anyway
Re:Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I suspect this is more that he doesn't want to be in a bulgarian prison, really there was zero chance of him being sent to Russia. Bulgarian prisons apparently make the American prisons look clean and non violent.
^this, combined with the fact he knows that in the US system he can trade information for freedom regardless of the crimes he has committed.
Re:Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:4, Interesting)
No, we don't have that in the US. He can trade information to get a shorter sentence, but only if that information assists in prosecuting others for their involvement.
Unrelated information could be sold to the government, though, and time is easier when you have money.
People from other places often don't realize how corruption-resistant most parts of American government is. There are always types of corruption that will exist. Especially the types that are debatable if they're even corruption. But the people investigating crimes are in completely different organizations than the prosecutors. And a judge, who is totally independent, also has to sign off on a deal. So to get a reduced sentence, the information has to be specifically useful to the prosecutors for them to even try. It is unlikely that he has information that could help him.
But he probably doesn't know that. His argument seems to actually be that he's only being charged with a crime because the US wants information from him. He's in for a big surprise, because the people who filed the charges against him aren't people who have any interest in whatever information he might have about things other than the crime he's charged with. He apparently imagines the US as being like Ruzzia.
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You're just not comprehending. You're not listening, and so what you say to attempt an argument doesn't address anything I said. You're just repeating generic ignorant bullshit.
Witness protection program protects witnesses who testify against other defendants. They give information to the prosecutors that is useful to the prosecutors.
For example, you can't trade political information to get into the witness protection program. You can't trade foreign intelligence to get into the witness protection program.
Re: Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:2)
Yup, that's the theory. /arrest) ?
Entirely different in practice though.
But I am no one to tell you that, so here's an experiment:
Try few of your friends / supporters and see if most of them agree that the DA, Police, FBI etc can not and do not influence any case they handle (including people they so not charge
Just because things are divided up amongst different government departments does not ever mean it will stop humans who work with each other to collude and do quid p
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You don't really comprehend the difference between trading something to get charges dropped, and the prosecutors having a simple affinity for rich people and not really wanting to prosecute them and make their rich friends mad.
Completely different things. Once they're charged, if they try to offer money to get charges dropped, they just go to prison for obstruction.
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I suspect this is more that he doesn't want to be in a bulgarian prison
Bulgaria has a serious organized crime problem, with "thicknecks" doing a lot of the dirty work, and then of course being the ones arrested. So prison there, you're stuck with a bunch of roid-rage power trippers, and everything (food, etc) is underfunded because it is a poor country.
Yeah, easy call, "extradite me faster, I waive all hearings!"
Re:Yes, please send me to the US ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically. Searches on how to exit Russia had gone way up when the call was announced.
In fact, the anti-war protestors were rounded up and conscripted, which seems to be a very desperate move. I mean, how well will people who are against the war actually fight? Given the Russian soldiers already defecting in Ukraine, it seems like you're just going to get people who are going to defect and leave the instant they cross into Ukraine.
At least conscription of prisoners has a point - there was video showing prisoners basically having a chance to "earn their freedom" by being conscripted. Though, I kind of wonder how many would sign up, only to run away once they cross.
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I mean, how well will people who are against the war actually fight?
If they don't fight, they'll be shot. By one side or the other.
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It's a shit show all round.
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I will be concerned about having such people in the army - there is no guarantee that they will not gun down the first Russian senior officer they come across, since they will be pissed at the government and armed.
And if they decide going to Ukraine will be a death sentence as cannon fodder, may as well die doing something which they consider as useful.
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Since he claims he has info America would want, I wonder if his security has been increased while in prison in Bulgaria. Don't want him dead from some mysterious causes.
This assumes he really has sensitive info that America will be interested in and it's not a ploy to increase his value.
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Accused Russian RSOCKS Botmaster Arrested, Requests Extradition To US [from Bulgaria]
I would suspect, if he truly has information of value, he's more worried about Russia deciding as a compromised asset he is now a liability, not an asset. Liabilities need to be minimized and removed from the books; something Russia is good at accomplishing.
I have a dollar (Score:2)
Poor guy (Score:2)
Has no clue what he is in for.
Botnets + Spam == Spam From Hacked Devices ? (Score:2)
If he's operating a giant botnet of hacked devices, and he's also the biggest spam sender, then wouldn't that logically conclude that they are related and maybe the botnet is the one sending out all the spam? I imagine sending spam from hacked devices would be pretty simple.
He’s trying to stay one step ahead (Score:2)
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Citation [thedailybeast.com].
coincidence (Score:2, Funny)
Draft age Russian "suddenly" needs to get to the US to tell them "something".
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If you don't know anything about Bulgarian prisons, what you said would make sense.
But trying to get deported to Russia would probably be Plan B, he'd have a reasonable chance of escape on the front line, he might even be able to switch sides and get an intelligence post.
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It's bad enough you're obviously-racist, but why such a simpering snowflake dog whistle? Is that really the best you can do?
Until (Score:3)
Also, until he is extradited to the US, he needs to stay away from open windows on the 8th floor.
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Except WWIII (Score:1)
And it wasn't too long algo, (Vietnam) and young convict of a minor crime would be offerred by a judge to either join the Marines, or get jail time. (43 years ago? I guess that is a long time after all.)