Russian and Moldovan National Pleads Guilty in Global IPStorm Botnet Case

Sergei Makinin Admits to Operating Illegal Proxy Service, Generating Over $500,000 from Scheme

Sergei Makinin, a man with Russian and Moldovan citizenship, pleaded guilty to illegally taking control of thousands of electronic devices worldwide to rent them to clients who want to hide their internet activity.
The scheme ran from at least June 2019 to December 2022 and generated more than half a million dollars, with unidentified customers paying hundreds of dollars a month for the service.
Makinin developed and deployed malicious software to gain control of people’s devices via an extensive network known as a “botnet,” which was dubbed IPStorm.
He then sold illegal access to the hijacked devices to clients seeking to keep their Internet activities private, advertising that he had more than 23,000 “highly anonymous” proxies available worldwide.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Juan office and prosecuted by federal prosecutors in Puerto Rico because infected computers were reported in various towns in the U.S. territory.