Kelihos malware author, botnet herder named by Microsoft

Microsoft has named a new defendant in the ongoing Kelihos case.

His name is Andrey N. Sabelnikov, of St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, and is believed to have written the code for and either created, or participated in creating, the Kelihos malware, and used the malware to control, operate, maintain and grow the Kelihos botnet.

According to Microsoft’s amended complaint, Sabelnikov allegedly controlled the botnet using 21 Internet domain names and 3,723 “cz.cc” Internet sub-domains.

“Defendant currently works on a freelance basis for a software development and consulting firm,” it is stated in the complaint. “Prior to his current employment, Defendant worked as a software engineer and project manager at a company that provided firewall, antivirus and security software.”

Microsoft hasn’t mentioned which security firm Sabelnikov worked for, but a quick online search reveals his LinkedIn profile, which says that he was an employee of St. Petersburg-based Agnitum from 2005 to 2007.

According to Richard Boscovich, Microsoft’ lead counsel on the case, evidence that Sabelnikov is behind the Kelihos malware was found by the company’s investigators during the analysis of the malware’s code.

If these accusations prove to be true, we might, in time, find out whether the speculations about the Kelihos, Waledac and Storm malware having the same author are correct.