US authorities arrest administrator behind 'likely world's largest botnet ever'

United States authorities announced they have arrested the administrator behind what is likely the world's largest botnet, which included more than 19 million compromised Windows machines across multiple countries.

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The description of the world's largest botnet comes from FBI director Christopher Wray, who said the botnet was used to gather millions of dollars from people over the last 10 years. More specifically, the FBI director said to the Justice Department that a international cyber operation was conducted to identify the alleged administrator of the botnet known as "911 S5", who was found to be the individual Yunhe Wang. Wang was arrested and US authorities "seized infrastructure and assets, and levied sanctions against Wang and his co-conspirators," said Wray.

The infection of this botnet was truly global, with US officials writing the 911 S5 Botnet had infected PCs in nearly 200 countries and "facilitated a whole host of computer-enabled crimes, including financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation." Moreover, the US Treasury wrote in its announcement Wang didn't act alone in the venture, and named two more alleged perpetrators, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng. In total, the US authorities believe the botnet netted Wang and others involved $99 million.

Additionally, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) claims the botnet was used to file fraudulent Coronavirus aid relief claims, "resulting in the loss of billions of dollars to the US government."

Wang if convicted faces 65 years in prison for multiple charges such as conspiracy to commit computer fraud, substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.