Russian Hacker Accused Of Raiding Swiss Banks Arrested In Bangkok

Max Smolaks,

Farid ‘Diabl0’ Essebar, one of the creators of the Zotob worm, evaded the authorities for the last three years, and is accused of causing $4 billion worth of damage

A 27-year old hacker who stole financial information under the nickname ‘Diabl0’ has been arrested by Thai authorities in Bangkok.

Farid Essebar is accused of causing as much as $4 billion worth of damage to several Swiss banks. He previously served a year in prison for helping create the Zotob worm, which wreaked havoc in 2005. At the time, Sophos suggested that ‘Diabl0’ could be linked to over 20 other viruses.

Essebar is currently awaiting extradition to Switzerland, where he will face trial.

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In 2011, Diabl0 and his accomplices allegedly created duplicates of the bank websites to steal credit card information. Swiss authorities have been trying to track the gang down for the last three years.

According to Bangkok Post, Essebar, a Russian citizen born in Morocco, was arrested by Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) after a joint operation with the Immigration Bureau, the Office of the Attorney-General and their Swiss counterparts.

The Thai police says Essebar and his accomplices were travelling in and out of Thailand to Hong Kong and neighbouring countries, but were never gambling or attracting attention. They also never bought any assets in Thailand – unusual for people who are supposed to have earned millions from their trade.

This is not Diabl0’s first run-in with the law: in 2005, the hacker, who was just 18 at the time, was arrested by Moroccan police at the request of the FBI, and spent a year in prison after being found guilty of creating the Zotob worm that attacked Windows 2000.

Zotob and its variants disrupted operations at ABC News, the New York Times, Caterpillar, United Parcel Service, Boeing and the US Department of Homeland Security. After the worm appeared online, famously infecting the CNN networks during live coverage, Microsoft put up a $250,000 bounty for the capture of its authors.

Essebar will be extradited to Switzerland in 90 days, in accordance with international agreements. Two more members of the same cybercrime gang are still at large.

Last year, a man accused of helping develop and spread the virulent SpyEye banking malware was extradited from Thailand to the US.

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