Day: May 24, 2025

The U.S. indicted Russian Rustam Gallyamov for leading the Qakbot botnet, which infected 700K+ devices and was used in ransomware attacks.

The U.S. authorities have indicted Russian national Rustam Gallyamov, the leader of the Qakbot operation, which infected over 700,000 computers and facilitated ransomware attacks.

Qakbot, also known as QBot, QuackBot and Pinkslipbot, is an info-stealing malware that has been active since 2008. The malware spreads via malspam campaigns, it inserts replies in active email threads.

Gallyamov began developing Qakbot in 2008, building a team that expanded its capabilities over the time. Used for over a decade, it served as a trojan, dropper, and backdoor.

Since 2019, Qakbot has served as an attack vector in ransomware operations by major gangs like Conti, REvil, Black Basta, Egregor, and others.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize over $24M in crypto from Gallyamov, part of a multinational cybercrime crackdown.

“A federal indictment unsealed today charges Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov, 48, of Moscow, Russia, with leading a group of cyber criminals who developed and deployed the Qakbot malware. In connection with the charges, the Justice Department filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against over $24 million in cryptocurrency seized from Gallyamov over the course of the investigation.” reads the press release published by DoJ. “These actions are the latest step in an ongoing multinational effort by the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Canada to combat cybercrime.”

The DOJ’s latest charges build on the 2023 Operation ‘Duck Hunt’ that dismantled the Qakbot botnet, revealing Gallyamov and his team continued attacks using “spam bombs” and ransomware like Black Basta and Cactus into 2025. Over 170 BTC and millions in crypto were previously seized.

In November 2022, experts at the Cybereason Global SOC (GSOC) team observed a surge in Qakbot infections as part of an ongoing aggressive Qakbot malware campaign that led to Black Basta ransomware infections in the US.

According to the FBI’s 2023 announcement, crimes associated with Qakbot attacks caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to individuals and businesses in the U.S. and abroad. 

The FBI explained that as part of the operation has gained lawful access to Qakbot’s C2 infrastructure and identified over 700,000 infected computers worldwide. More than 200,000 infected computers were in the U.S.

“Investigators have found evidence that, between October 2021 and April 2023, Qakbot administrators received fees corresponding to approximately $58 million in ransoms paid by victims,” states the Justice Department.

The FBI performed a sinkholing of the botnet and once replaced the C2 infrastructure instructed the bot to download an uninstaller file and execute it to remove the Qakbot malware.

Despite the Qakbot takedown, Gallyamov continued attacks through January 2025. The DOJ has now filed to forfeit over $24 million in seized cryptocurrency.

“On April 25, 2025, pursuant to a seizure warrant, the FBI seized additional illicit proceeds from Gallyamov, including over 30 bitcoin and over $700,000 of USDT tokens. Today, the Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint in the Central District of California against all of the illicit proceeds seized from Gallyamov — worth over $24 million as of today — in order to forfeit and ultimately return those funds to victims.” continues DoJ.

The actions are part of Operation Endgame, a global law enforcement effort targeting cybercriminal groups. Victim resources are at: justice.gov/qakbot-resources.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, newsletter)