{"id":83779,"date":"2023-08-30T14:12:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T11:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=83779"},"modified":"2025-09-12T13:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:15:07","slug":"fbi-seizes-nearly-9-million-in-bitcoin-from-qakbot-botnet-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/fbi-seizes-nearly-9-million-in-bitcoin-from-qakbot-botnet-operators\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Seizes Nearly $9 Million in Bitcoin From Qakbot Botnet Operators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FBI agents, as part of an international operation, dismantled the Qakbot botnet, which had infected more than 700,000 computers worldwide. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/qakbot-malware-disrupted-international-cyber-takedown\">\u041c\u0438\u043d\u044e\u0441\u0442 \u0421\u0428\u0410<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Qakbot has been actively used by ransomware groups, including Conti, ProLock, Egregor, REvil, MegaCortex and Black Basta.<\/p>\n<p>According to investigators, from October 2021 to April 2023, Qakbot administrators received about $58 million in ransoms paid by victims. Law enforcement seized more than $8.6 million in bitcoins.<\/p>\n<p>Initially the malware reached victims&#8217; computers via phishing email campaigns. Subsequently, operators used it to deploy ransomware.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI gained access to Qakbot&#8217;s infrastructure and took the botnet offline.<\/p>\n<p>As reported in May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the dismantling of an international network of computers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/fsb-linked-malware-dismantled-by-fbi-anti-war-csgo-map-and-other-cybersecurity-events\">infected with the Snake P2P botnet<\/a> and involved in espionage on behalf of Russia. According to the agency, the malware was spread by the hacking group Turla, linked to the FSB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FBI agents, as part of an international operation, dismantled the Qakbot botnet, which infected more than 700,000 computers worldwide. The U.S. Department of Justice said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1573,44,26],"class_list":["post-83779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-botnet","tag-cybercrime","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"20","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83781,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83779\/revisions\/83781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}