Evgeniy Bogachev, also known as Slavik, is the purported creator of the Zeus malware which was used for the theft of millions of dollars.

He is also suspected of using his hacking skills to spy for Russia. According to a white paper from Fox-IT, Bogachev or one of his associates is also suspected of using a botnet for espionage purposes. His botnet was used to issue commands directed toward victims' systems in Georgia and Turkey.

The report stated that commands searched for “documents with certain levels of government secret classifications” and “specific government intelligence agency employees." It was also used to search for “politically sensitive” issues in the region.

The botnet was adjusted to infect more machines in Ukraine and “search for certain types of politically sensitive information.” This type of info would have been useful for Russian purposes.

IT-Fox Principal Security Expert Michael Sandee suspects Bogachev's espionage assistance has helped him stay out of U.S. officials' grasp.

Source: SCMagazine