Cybersecurity

Russian Spam King's Plea May Suggest Cooperation With U.S.

  • Levashov accused of commandeering 100,000 computers worldwide
  • Plea comes days after U.S. secures accused JPMorgan hacker

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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U.S. prosecutors secured a guilty plea from a Russian who is accused of commandeering a network of 100,000 or more breached computers, the second major victory in the space of a week in their pursuit of international hacking.

The guilty plea suggests prosecutors may consider the Russian, Peter Levashov, a useful guide to a broader world of cybercrime. He isn’t scheduled to be sentenced for almost a year, the sort of delay that often suggests a detainee may be cooperating with prosecutors to gain a lighter sentence.