Yune Wang, a 35-year-old citizen of the People’s Republic of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, has been arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for his suspected involvement in a botnet scam that facilitated various cyber crimes such as fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations.
According to the indictment released on May 29, Wang is accused of creating and distributing malware that compromised millions of residential Windows computers worldwide. This malware was responsible for affecting over 19 million IP addresses through the 911 S5 botnet between 2014 and 2022. Wang allegedly sold the hijacked IP addresses to cyber criminals in exchange for cryptocurrencies, resulting in victims from more than 200 countries falling prey to financial fraud, identity theft, and child exploitation.
An analysis conducted by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that the wallet addresses associated with Wang held more than $130 million in illicitly obtained digital assets. Researchers at Chainalysis stated that the funds were earned through illegal commissions.
Law enforcement officials from the DOJ have commented on the case, stating that they have seized 23 domains and 70 servers that formed the infrastructure of Wang’s operations. This joint effort involved collaboration between officials from the United States, Singapore, Thailand, and Germany. Additionally, authorities managed to confiscate $30 million in assets connected to the 911 S5 botnet.
In a previous report by Cointelegraph, it was revealed that China allegedly had a Trojan Horse in the U.S. Bitcoin mining infrastructure. This was achieved through the use of locally manufactured application-specific integrated circuit mining rigs. Experts have expressed concerns that these rigs could enable Chinese intelligence agencies to conduct cyber espionage, potentially targeting sensitive military installations, power grids, or communication networks.
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