ZOMBIE SPIDER
- First seen
- 2010-01-01 00:00:00
- Primary motivation
- financial-gain
- Sophistication
- expert
- Resource level
- individual
- Actor type
- criminal
- Profile updated
- 2026-07-07 11:58:11
Targeted industries: financial-services technology-and-telecommunications
Context
On April 7, 2017, Pytor Levashov — who predominantly used the alias Severa or Peter Severa and whom Falcon Intelligence tracks as ZOMBIE SPIDER — was arrested in an international law enforcement operation led by the FBI. ZOMBIE SPIDER’s specialty was large-scale spam distribution, a fundamental component of cybercrime operations. Levashov was the primary threat actor behind a botnet known as Kelihos and its predecessors, Waledac and Storm. In addition to Levashov’s arrest, there was a technical operation conducted by Falcon Intelligence to seize control of the Kelihos botnet.
Reports & references
- CrowdStrike — Farewell To Kelihos And Zombie Spider (report)
- CrowdStrike — Inside The Takedown Of Zombie Spider And The Kelihos Botnet (report)
- justice.gov — Justice Department Announces Actions Dismantle Kelihos Botnet 0 (report)
- CrowdStrike — Report2018Globalthreatreport (report)