Oleg Yegorovich Nikolayenko

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Oleg Nikolayenko during his arrest

Oleg Yegorowitsch Nikolajenko ( Russian Олег Егорович Николаенко ; * July 17, 1987 ) is a Russian citizen who has been identified as responsible for mass e-mailing (so-called spam ) and therefore in the United States in a federal court case for violating the The CAN-SPAM Act, which basically bans spam in the United States, has been indicted. The investigating authorities hold him responsible for up to a third of the worldwide spam volume within certain periods of time. He was sentenced to several years in prison and released on probation in February 2013.

prehistory

Oleg Nikolayenko, resident of Vidnoye , Moscow Oblast , Russia , has been identified as the "King of Spam" by the FBI . He was responsible for the operation of the “Mega-D” botnet and the distribution of the “Ozdok” trojan , which infected more than 500,000 computers worldwide and thus (unintentionally) became a member of the “Mega-D” botnet. According to investigators, up to 10 billion spam e-mails per day were sent via the botnet beginning in early 2007, which at that time made up up to 32% of the total global spam volume. The messages sent advertised the purchase of counterfeit Rolex watches, herbal-based dietary supplements, and prescription drugs such as Viagra . In October 2008, the Federal Trade Commission decided to freeze the assets of individual suspects in connection with the operation of the botnet, but Nikolajenko's involvement in the case was not yet known.

Preliminary investigation

Nikolayenko was at the 2009 SEMA Auto Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center

In August 2009, the FBI made the decisive breakthrough in identifying Nikolayenko as the organizer and chief culprit when Jody M. Smith pleaded guilty in Missouri of selling counterfeit Rolex watches and partnered with the FBI to investigate backers. Federal FBI officials were finally able to trace financial transactions totaling $ 459,000 from the spammer Lance Atkinson to Nikolayenko in late November 2009 using Subpoenas issued by the grand jury . Nikolajenko (operating under the code name "Docent") used a Google Gmail account for communication , the complete history of which was handed over to the FBI by Google, also on the basis of Subpoenas. Investigators also gained access to Nikolajenko's entry and exit data into the United States stored at the United States Department of State . These revealed that he had visited New York City , Los Angeles and Las Vegas on two trips to the USA in 2009 and that he had only left the USA a few weeks before his identity became known. Since Russia's constitution explicitly forbids extradition of its citizens and Nikolayenko was back in his home country, there was no way of accessing Nikolayenko at that time.

At the beginning of November 2009 FireEye , an IT security company , had already succeeded in identifying and switching off central servers in the “Mega-D” botnet in the USA. Nikolajenko, who was in Las Vegas at the time to visit the SEMA Auto Show, was forced to return to Russia two days earlier than planned in order to repair the "damage" caused by it. At the end of 2009, Nikolajenko succeeded in expanding the botnet to such an extent that around 17% of global spam was generated again via "Mega-D".

Arrest and prosecution

The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas where Nikolayenko was arrested in 2010.

Nikolajenko traveled to Las Vegas again in 2010 to attend the SEMA Auto Show and was arrested by FBI federal agents on November 4, 2010 at the Bellagio Hotel. $ 4,000 and two passports were found on him. He was taken to Milwaukee , Wisconsin , where he was charged with fraud against a federal agent who was undercover ordering Viagra and receiving herbal pills.

On November 16, he was eventually tried in the US District Court of Eastern Wisconsin and faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He was accused of deliberately forging header information from commercial emails and sending up to 2,500 spam emails per day, both of which are in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. Nikolajenko pleaded not guilty with his lawyer Christopher Van Wagner. Wagner demanded the release of his client on parole, since his wife and daughter were traveling from Moscow to the USA to follow the process and there was therefore no immediate risk of escape. The suspension of pre-trial detention was refused by Judge Patricia Gorence.

On December 21, 2010, the public prosecutor handed over 4,600 of the 6,000-page indictment to Nikolaenko's lawyer. Some passages of the indictment had been blackened out to protect witnesses. The start of the trial was set for February 21, 2011, but was later postponed. Nikolajenko later fired his lawyer Wagner and instead took Arkady Bukh as defense attorney, who accused his predecessor of having acted more in the interests of the indictment than of his client.

In June 2012, Nikolayenko finally pleaded guilty as charged. On February 27, 2013, he was sentenced to a previously served term plus three years probation.

According to the company M86 Security, the spam throughput of Nikolajenko's “Mega-D” botnet fell below 5% of all global spam by the end of 2010. The total number of spam e-mails fell remarkably sharply during the period in which Nikolajenko was arrested in Las Vegas, although Paul Wood from Symantec was responsible for the disruption of various other botnets, e. B. Rustok, Lethic and Xarvester. According to some technology experts, “Mega-D” is no longer seen as a particularly large botnet, although it may have been the largest botnet designed exclusively to send spam emails.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Bruce Vielmetti: Milwaukee FBI agent trips up Russian 'king of spam' (English) . In: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , December 3, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2015. 
  2. a b Bruce Vielmetti: Russian king of spam avoids prison in plea deal (English) . In: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , March 7, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2015. 
  3. a b c Joe Barrett: Accused Spam King to Be Arraigned (English) . In: The Wall Street Journal , December 3, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  4. Mallory Simon: Man allegedly responsible for a third of your spam e-mail to be arraigned (English) , CNN. December 3, 2010. 
  5. ^ A b John Leyden: Feds pursue Russian, 23, behind ⅓ of ALL WORLD SPAM (English) . In: The Register , December 1, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010. 
  6. ^ Indictment: United States of America v. Oleg Y. Nikolaenko, p. 1
  7. ^ Brad Stone, Authorities Shut Down Spam Ring . In: New York Times , October 14, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  8. FBI Targets Young Russian Spam Kingpin (English) . In: The Smoking Gun , November 30, 2010. Retrieved December 3, 2010. 
  9. ^ Nate Anderson: How the FBI nabbed a Russian spam king in Las Vegas (English) , Ars Technica. December 3, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  10. a b Mathew J. Schwartz: FBI Busts Alleged Mega D Botnet Mastermind (English) . In: Information Week , December 3, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2010. 
  11. a b c d Russian Man Pleads Not Guilty in Spam Case (English) . In: Wall Street Journal , December 3, 2010. 
  12. Bruce Vielmetti: Prosecutors hand over 6,000 pages in Spam King case (English) . In: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , December 22, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2010. 
  13. ^ Russian "King of Spam" has a new lawyer, Press Release. June 2011. Bukh Law Firm, PC - 14 Wall St, New York NY 10005 - (212) 729-1632. NYC Criminal Lawyer
  14. ^ David Jani: Global Spam Levels Sharply Drop Over Christmas , IT Pro Portal. January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2011. 
  15. Иван Шадрин: Mega-D: не крупнейшая и не последняя сеть 'зомби-компьютеров' (Russian) . April 12, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010.