Russian Hacker Linked To 2016 Election Hack Arrested In Spain: Report
Spanish police, acting on a request by the FBI, arrested a Russia hacker thought to be connected to Russian election hack.
A Russian computer hacker Peter Levashov, was arrested in Spain on Sunday, according to a report by Reuters. Spanish police were acting on a request by the FBI when they arrested Peter Levashov in Barcelona, Spain.
The Reuters report noted that “Russian television station RT reported that Levashov was arrested under a U.S. international arrest warrant and was suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in last year’s U.S. election.”
Peter Levashov is also known by the name Peter Severa and according to the New York Times, Severa created the malware that was used in 2012 to influence the presidential election in Russia.
According to Russian news, Levashov’s wife is quoted as saying that her husband told her he was arrested because “the virus my husband allegedly created was related to Trump’s victory in the elections.”
The New York Times also noted that “Spamhaus, a group that tracks spammers, has for years listed Peter Severa as among the top 10 perpetrators in the world, and has identified him as Mr. Levashov.”
The Times report also noted that Russian cybersecurity researchers connected Peter Severa to a recruiting effort by the F.S.B. – the Russian successor to the K.G.B. “The researchers said Peter Severa had been on closed chat sites trying to recruit underground hackers for a later abandoned effort by the Russian security services to crash Islamic extremist websites.”
The computer virus that Peter Severa helped create was used in the 2012 Russian presidential election for spreading fake news stories saying that Vladimir Putin’s opponent in the race had come out as gay.
