55-year-old Rostov-on-Don woman identified as Trickbot botnet operator

Alla Vitte, arrested in the United States and one of the suspects linked to the creation of the notorious Trickbot malware, turned out to be a native of Russia.

According to Bloomberg, Vitte was born in Rostov-on-Don, earned a degree in applied mathematics from the University of Latvia, and lived in the Netherlands. After marriage, she moved to Suriname in South America.

Around 2013, Vitte began professionally developing websites. Later she started creating malware.

Vitte was arrested on February 6 and recently appeared in court. In a U.S. Department of Justice notice she is listed as a Latvian citizen.

The woman was charged on 19 counts. Vitte became the first of the alleged Trickbot operators to be arrested.

According to investigators, the Trickbot group operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Suriname. Its activities targeted companies, organisations and private individuals worldwide.

“Vitte and her accomplices are accused of infecting tens of millions of computers worldwide to steal financial information and move millions of dollars through compromised systems,” the FBI said.

The Trickbot malware has been one of the most popular trojans among criminals. It is also used to infiltrate systems and further theft of data, covert mining and deployment of ransomware.

In 2020, an international group of specialists carried out an operation to neutralize Trickbot.

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