Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the statement below regarding today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice of the arrest of the administrator of the “Bugat” botnet and technical disruption of the malware:
“I congratulate the Department of Justice, the FBI, and their partners on the arrest of botnet administrator Andrey Ghinkul and the disruption of the Bugat botnet. Advanced botnets like Bugat, which was designed to steal online banking credentials and to evade antivirus software, are a significant threat to the more than 100 million Americans who bank online. This operation, which featured substantial assistance from police in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Moldova demonstrates the borderless nature of cybercrime and the importance of international cooperation in finding and arresting those responsible for these offenses.”
A leader in the Senate on cybersecurity issues, Senator Whitehouse has introduced an amendment to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to update the nation’s cybercrime laws. The amendment would give prosecutors better tools to fight sophisticated botnets like Bugat and would close jurisdictional loopholes that allow criminals to evade U.S. law enforcement by hiding overseas.
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