A Russian man suspected of helping run and create the Kelihos botnet has proclaimed his innocence.
Last week, Microsoft issued an amended complaint at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia claiming former antivirus professional Andrey N Sabelnikov was "responsible for the operations of the Kelihos botnet."
Sabelnikov has subsequently posted a blog on LiveJournal, saying he was "dismayed" at being named a suspect.
We look forward to seeing Mr Sabelnikov in court so we can continue this discussion.
The Russian claimed he "did not commit this crime" and had "never participated in the management of botnets."
Sabelnikov said he had been over to America on business in late January when Microsoft lodged the complaint, but decided to return to Russia as he could not afford legal assitance in the US.
He added he was ready to answer questions relating to Kelihos.
The Kelihos botnet was shut down last year, but Microsoft has continued to hunt for the perpetrators and have them prosecuted.
Microsoft had previously accused Dominique Piatti, a Czech man running the dotFREE domain hosting company, claiming his business was registering subdomains used to operate Kelihos.
However, Microsoft came to the conclusion dotFREE was simply being used by Kelihos's controllers and came to an agreement with Piatti.
Cooperation with Piatti led to this week's fresh allegations against Sabelnikov.
At its peak, the Kelihos spam engine had infected an estimated 40,000 machines.
Microsoft response
In response to Sabelnikov's claims, Microsoft said it stood by its original complaint and it looked forward to seeing the Russian in court.
"As this is a case pending in court, we cannot comment further except to say that we look forward to seeing Mr Sabelnikov in court so we can continue this discussion," Richard Boscovich, senior attorney for Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit, told the BBC.
Read on for our look at the war on botnets.
-
Why keeping track of AI assistants can be a tricky businessColumn Making the most of AI assistants means understanding what they can do – and what the workforce wants from them
-
Nvidia braces for a $5.5 billion hit as tariffs reach the semiconductor industryNews The chipmaker says its H20 chips need a special license as its share price plummets
-
Seized database helps Europol snare botnet customers in ‘Operation Endgame’ follow-up stingNews Europol has detained several people believed to be involved in a botnet operation as part of a follow-up to a major takedown last year.
-
Horabot campaign targeted businesses for more than two years before finally being discoveredNews The newly-discovered Horabot botnet has attacked companies in the accounting, investment, and construction sectors in particular
-
Brand-new Emotet campaign socially engineers its way from detectionNews This latest resurgence follows a three-month hiatus and tricks users into re-enabling dangerous VBA macros
-
Microsoft says “it’s just too difficult” to effectively disrupt ransomwareNews The company details its new approach to combatting cyber crime as the underground industry drains $6 trillion from the global economy
-
Beating the bad bots: Six ways to identify and block spam trafficIn-depth Not all traffic is good. Learn how to prevent bad bots from overrunning your website
-
Ukraine's vigilante IT army now has a DDoS bot to automate attacks against RussiaNews The 270,000-strong IT Army of Ukraine will now combine supporters' cloud infrastructure to strengthen the daily attacks against their invaders
-
Microsoft's secure VBA macro rules already being bypassed by hackersNews Recent analysis of Emotet activity has revealed a shift away from malicious Office documents to drop malware
-
Emotet infrastructure has almost doubled since resurgence was confirmed
News Researchers confirm the infrastructure has also been upgraded for a "better secured", more resilient operation
