Paunch and his partners allegedly apprehended by law enforcement

Oct 7, 2013 11:43 GMT  ·  By

Rumor has it that Paunch, the author of the notorious BlackHole exploit kit, and his partners have been arrested in Russia. 

Maarten Boone, security analyst at Dutch IT security company Fox-IT, was the first to break the news on Twitter. So far, there aren’t any additional details.

Paunch is the online moniker used by the leader of a Russian crimeware gang. Experts say that BlackHole and other exploit kits are his work. Security expert and journalist Brian Krebs has written a number of reports on Paunch and his “products.”

People like Paunch are usually very hard to track down because they take numerous measures to protect their real identities. However, over the past years, law enforcement agencies have been very efficient in tracking down individuals suspected of being involved in the creation and distribution of malware.

I’ll post more details as they become available.