Google sues 2 Russians, 15 others for alleged organized crime scheme

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is suing two Russian nationals it claims are part of a criminal enterprise that has silently infiltrated more than a million computers and devices around the world, creating “a modern technological and borderless incarnation of organized crime.”

In a complaint being unsealed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Google names two defendants, Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov, as well as 15 unnamed individuals. Google claims the defendants have created a “botnet” known as Glupteba, to use for illicit purposes, including the theft and unauthorized use of Google users’ login and account information.

A botnet is a network of internet-connected devices that have been infected with malware. When summoned together, they can do the bidding of a hacker, often with the devices’ owners not realizing their machines have been hijacked. A swarm of devices can jam traffic at websites, run malware to steal login credentials, sell fraudulent credit cards online and grant unauthorized access to other cyber criminals.