Mastermind behind Kelihos botnet worked for security firms

A Russian man accused by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) of creating the Kelihos botnet worked by day for a couple of security firms. Before being shut down by Microsoft in September, the Kelihos botnet was made up of an estimated 45,000 computers and allegedly sent out as many as 4 billion spam and malware-laced messages a day to users around the world.

In a U.S. District Court complaint filed against Andrey Sabelnikov, Microsoft noted, "Defendant currently works on a freelance basis for a software development and consulting firm. Prior to his current employment, Defendant worked as a software engineer and project manager at a company that provided firewall, antivirus and security software."

Though Sabelnikov is not the only named defendant, he is the first to be accused by Microsoft of allegedly creating the malware and controlling the botnet. The effect that Sabelnikov's day job had over the creation of Kelihos is unknown, though it does throw up the possibility of other security professionals who may be cultivating privately networks of botnets and malware after hours.

Though I doubt malware programmers privy to the workings of the security industry could exploit their knowledge to evade detection, I think it nevertheless fuels the argument for building multiple levels of security, preferably using products from different security vendors.

For more:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at PC Mag
- check out this article at Computerworld

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