The alleged creator of Svpeng – a mobile trojan used to steal payment card information from Android devices, which was later modified to include ransomware capabilities – was arrested in Russia, Forbes reported on Monday, citing an announcement from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The 25-year-old – who was arrested along with four other suspected accomplices – allegedly used the malware to infect 350,000 Google devices and steal as much as $930,000, the report states, adding that, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the five individuals offered confessions.
Svpeng was initially targeting Russian bank customers, and was later modified to lock up devices and ask for a ransom. In June 2014, Kaspersky Lab researchers identified a variant with 91 percent of infections in the U.S. The variant used a phony FBI message to scare victims into paying a $200 MoneyPak payment.