“Rapper Bot” malware seized, alleged developer identified and charged

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced charges against the alleged developer and administrator of the "Rapper Bot" DDoS-for-hire botnet.

Ethan Foltz, 22, of Eugene, Oregon, allegedly rented the botnet to cybercriminals eho targeted various organizations.

The botnet operation itself was seized as part of ‘Operation PowerOff ‘on August 6, during a raid at Foltz’s residence in Oregon.

The Mirai-based malware botnet, which is also known as “Eleven Eleven” and “CowBot,” has been active since at least 2021 and infected tens of thousands of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and router devices.

The firepower ranged between 2 to 6 Tbps (terabits per second).

The U.S. DoJ announcement explains that Rapper Bot was used to target over 18,000 entities across 80 countries, including U.S. g