A Russian hacker, Maxim Senakh, 41, admitted to installing Ebury malware on tens of thousands of computer servers in order to generate millions in fraudulent payments.

The infected servers included thousands in the U.S. He, along with a gang of hackers, used the malware to create and operate a botnet that would "generate and redirect internet traffic in furtherance of various click-fraud and spam e-mail schemes, which fraudulently generated millions of dollars in revenue."

Ebury is a SSH rootkit/backdoor trojan that specifically targets Linux servers. According to German cybersecurity authority CERT-Bund, Ebury is capable of stealing usernames and passwords, as well as use compromised systems to send massive amounts of spam.

Following his arrest by Finnish authorities in 2015, he was extradited to the U.S. Russia objected to the arrest - officials claimed it was illegal, describing it as an "abuse of the law in violation of internationally accepted procedural norms."

Senakh will be sentenced Aug.3rd after pleading guilty to conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He is facing up to 10 years in jail.

Source: CNET