Iserdo, Mastermind Behind Mariposa Botnet, Caught with Help from Private Sector

“Mariposa botnet” – Butterfly botnet kit Author Arrested

“Iserdo,” the confirmed author of the Butterfly botnet kit, was arrested recently in Maribor, Slovenia, by Slovenian authorities working with the FBI. The 23-year-old master hacker known only by his Internet handle is allegedly the mastermind behind the code used to build the Mariposa botnet, which has compromised millions of systems worldwide. He is currently free on bail.

Spain’s Panda Security and Canada’s Defence Intelligence, along with their partners in the so-called “Mariposa Working Group” assembled to fight the botnet, provided key information to the FBI and international authorities, leading to the arrest. The two security firms identified Iserdo by analyzing the software behind the Mariposa botnet. They had been monitoring the Butterfly kit for almost two years.

“In the last two years, the software used to create the Mariposa botnet was sold to hundreds of other criminals, making it one of the most notorious in the world,” said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III.

“What’s exciting about these arrests,” added Christopher Davis, CEO of Defence Intelligence, “is that it’s the first time that the authors have been targeted. Typically, the operators of the botnets are caught, but it’s extremely rare to have caught the author of the build kit behind the botnet.”

The Butterfly kit was sold online at a cost ranging from US$650 to $2,000. It allowed people with limited computer skills to perpetrate cybercrime on a massive scale. It has been used to create almost 10,000 unique pieces of malicious software and over 700 botnets.