Next President of the United Fates of America

[Vianova]

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It just keeps on going like the Ever ready rabbit.
This was Rachel Maddow's big story of the night on her show.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russ...up-n744911

Russian Hacker Busted in Spain Latest in Global U.S. Roundup

The Russian hacker arrested in Spain this weekend 
is the latest suspect swept up in a global dragnet 
that U.S. officials hope will yield intelligence on Russian government interference 
in November's presidential election.

At least six Russians have been arrested in Europe on international warrants over the past several months, according to McClatchy Newspapers. 
The most recent arrest was Friday in Barcelona, 
where a 32-year-old Russian computer programmer was nabbed.

Pyotr Levashov, 32, was arrested Friday. 
A tweet from the Spanish National Police said that 
"In cooperation with the FBI, one of the most wanted cybercriminals has been detained in Barcelona. 
He is accused of scamming and data theft." 
The U.S. has charged that Levashov is spam kingpin Peter Severa, 
who is closely associated with Russia's most active cyber criminals.

According to Russian television, quoting Levashov's wife, 
armed police stormed into their apartment in Barcelona 
and quizzed her husband for two hours. 
Later in a phone conversation from a Spanish jail, 
Maria Levashov said her husband told her the arrest was "linked to Trump's election win."  

However, a U.S. official familiar with the arrest 

said authorities
have not yet determined if Levashov was part of the political hacking operation.

that's the NBC news above

the Australian news report was much better detail --- 
note the direct discrepancy in the facts {in blue above and below}

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/04/11...ian-hacker
US takes down huge botnet as Spain arrests notorious Russian hacker

Piotr or Peter Levashov, 
had operated the Kelihos network of tens of thousands of infected computers, 
stealing personal data and renting the network out to others 
to send spam emails by the millions and extort ransom from computer owners.

Levashov, also known in the hacking world as Peter Severa, 
was arrested at Barcelona airport on Friday at US request.

The arrest was unrelated to investigations into Russian interference 
in last year's US presidential election, 
US officials said.

A Spanish judge on Monday ordered Levashov to be remanded in custody 
as Washington is expected to seek his extradition.

Spanish police said in a statement late Monday that the arrest was the result of a
"complex inquiry carried out in collaboration with the American FBI."

A US indictment unsealed Monday said Levashov, 
36 and a native of St. Petersburg, had operated the Kelihos botnet since around 2010.

It was not the first time US officials have gone after him. 
In 2008 he was indicted as a Russia-based partner of the leading US spammer, Alan Ralsky. 
Ralsky and others were jailed in that case but Levashov was never caught.

The Kelihos network is made up of private computers around the world 
running on the Microsoft Window operating system. 
The computers are infected with malware that gives Levashov the ability to control them remotely, 
with the owners completely unaware.

According to the Justice Department, 
at times the number of computers in the network has topped 100,000, 
with between five and 10 percent of them in the United States.

Through underground networks, Kelihos sold the network's services to others, 
who would use it to send out spam emails advertising counterfeit drugs, 
work-at-home scams, and other fraud schemes, the indictment said.

They were also used for illegal "pump-and-dump" stock market manipulation schemes, 
and to spread other malware through which hackers 
could steal a user's banking account information including passwords, 
and lock up a computer's information to demand huge ransoms.

The indictment called Levashov "one of the world's most notorious criminal spammers."

The Spamhaus Project, 
which documents spam, botnets, malware and other abuse, 
listed him as seventh on its "10 Worst Spammers" list and 
"one of the longest operating criminal spam-lords on the internet."

"The ability of botnets like Kelihos to be weaponized quickly 
for vast and varied types of harms is a dangerous and deep threat to all Americans, 
driving at the core of how we communicate, network, earn a living, and live our everyday lives," 
Acting US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said in a statement.

A Spanish court specializing in international cases will rule on whether he will be sent to the US.

The US has 40 days to present evidence backing Levashov's extradition, which the suspect opposes.

In parallel with the arrest, 
US justice authorities announced an extraordinary move to bring down the Kelihos network, 
obtaining warrants that allows it to install its own malware-like programs 
on computers in the network to intercept its operation.

Such a move appeared to be the first ever application of controversial new investigative powers 
which took effect late last year.

The Justice Department explained that its programs 
would be able to redirect Kelihos-infected computers 
into substitute servers in order to halt the network's operation.

In doing so, it can record the private IP or internet protocol addresses of the computers 
and provide them to internet service providers to help customers eliminate the infections, 
the department explained.

In a warrant that permitted investigators to 
"infect" botnet computers in order to block Kelihos, 
investigators pledged to guard the privacy of computer owners.

"This operation will not capture content from the target computers 

or modify them in any other capacity except limiting the target computers' ability 
to interact with the Kelihos botnet," the warrant said.

In the meantime,
Russia and Iran have "red  lines" now too.  


Spicer had a press conference today.
Holy smokes ... 
the guy was a stumbling and bumbling nervous shit squeeze right out of the gate.
I didn't last long listening to his ... flaky-n-shaky ... fake-n-bake attempt at posturing,
as he was pissing all over himself and missing the mark on the toilet bowl of journalists present.

Trump remains perched upon his lofty bounce back into positive media reaction,
and Tillerson is due in Moscow for a whole lotta Lavrov,
while the US carrier fleet is on it's way to North Korea.


What is most amusing are the wild numbers put on the US air attack on the Syrian air base.
First it was .... 20 Syrians jets
and now
it's 20% of the Syrian air force capacity 



wishing Tillerson well,
and hoping that we can send Kim Un Jong to hell,
but I think that we will see more of this punitive bullshit than anything.

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