Kimwolf Botmaster 'Dort' nach 30Tbps DDoS-Aufzeichnung verhaftet

Kimwolf attacks reached nearly 30 Terabits per second, setting a new benchmark for recorded DDoS attack volume.

IoT devices fuel massive scale

Canadian authorities arrested 23-year-old Ottawa man Jacob Butler, alias "Dort," on suspicion of operating the Kimwolf Internet-of-Things botnet. The network enslaved millions of devices, specifically targeting hardware traditionally considered "firewalled" from the open internet, such as web cameras and digital photo frames.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in an Alaska district court, Butler used these infected systems to rent access to other cybercriminals or to launch massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) campaigns. These attacks even impacted Internet address ranges belonging to the Department of Defense. The scale of the operation was immense, with the Kimwolf botnet allegedly issuing over 25,000 attack commands.

Criminal charges and infrastructure seizure

Butler faces criminal hacking charges in both Canada and the United States. Following his arrest by the Ontario Provincial Police, he remains in Canadian custody awaiting an initial court hearing. If extradited to the U.S., he could face up to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting computer intrusion.

Law enforcement action against the botnet began in earnest on March 19, when international partners seized the technical infrastructure for Kimwolf along with three competing botnets: Aisuru, JackSkid, and Mossad. These networks were all vying for the same pool of vulnerable IoT devices.

Investigators linked Butler to the botnet through a trail of IP addresses, online account information, transaction records, and messaging application data. The case has drawn significant attention from the FBI's Anchorage field office and the DoD's Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

This arrest marks a significant victory in the ongoing battle against high-volume IoT botnets that leverage unsecure consumer hardware to disrupt global infrastructure.

Source: Alleged Kimwolf Botmaster 'Dort' Arrested, Charged in U.S. and Canada
Domain: krebsonsecurity.com