Thread by @arapaho415

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 <Thread>
1/ Tech-stuff is completely over my head, but a few observations on how this indictment is related to hack of DNC servers in 2016 (per #SteeleDossier). h/t @PortlusGlam
"McClatchy tied these guys to tech firm in Steele dossier through the Methbot"

https://twitter.com/Little1Mueller/status/1067557006196842501

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam 2/ One portion of @EDNYnews press release about the unsealing of this 13-count indictment is dedicated to:
"The Datacenter-Based Scheme (Methbot)"
Sep 25, 2018 article (see tweet 1/ of this <thread>: (more...)
mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/ar…

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews 3/ Per @McClatchyDC article, Roy Black Esq. is representing @BuzzFeed against a lawsuit filed on behalf of Cyprus🇨🇾-based entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev for publishing #SteeleDossier in Jan 2017. Val Gurvits is Gubarev's attorney. (more...)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 4/ "Gubarev is the founder...of Luxembourg🇱🇺-based XBT Holdings, whose family of tech companies provides servers, web hosting & an array of services. XBT owns South Florida-based Webzilla, which operates servers in Dallas, & both companies are identified in the...#SteeleDossier."

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 5/ "Steele’s dossier claimed on the final page of the 35-page document that XBT was used as a platform for the hack of the Democratic National Committee and subsequent release of private emails." (more..)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 6/ Per yesterday's unsealed indictment:
Awaiting extradiction to US are: Ovsyannikov (arrested last month in Malaysia🇲🇾), Zhukov (arrested earlier this month in Bulgaria🇧🇬); and Timchenko (arrested earlier this month in Estonia🇪🇪). The remaining defendants are at large. (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 7/ Methbot is identified in @EDNYnews indictment. @McClatchyDC, Sep 25, 2018: "companies owned and operated by XBT were either used by or affiliated with companies connected to the spread of two notorious computer viruses —the Gozi virus and the Methbot virus."🎯(more...)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 8/ "Methbot was unique because rather than launching bots through infected computers at homes & offices it used infected computer data centers — anywhere btwn 800-1,200 computer servers at any given time. The physical servers... were in Dallas & the Dutch🇳🇱 city of Amsterdam."

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 9/ XBT "has seven subsidiaries spread across three continents. In the Netherlands🇳🇱, Webzilla operates a data center with 6,000 servers. On its own website, Webzilla says it operates a data center in Dallas and 3,000 servers in the United States." (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 10/ "the spread of Methbot underscores how XBT or its affiliates could have been used in Russia’s🇷🇺 efforts to interfere in the 2016 election campaign."🎯 (more...)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 11/ "XBT also has an indirect overlap with the Gozi virus," which "dates back to the mid-2000s and used so-called zombie malware to hack into a computer’s browser and mimic its behavior in order to steal online banking logins and other vital information. (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 12/ Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York arrested its [Gozi virus]creator, Nikita V. Kuzmin, in 2013. He was nabbed while visiting San Francisco, & prosecutors said at the time that his signature virus infected more than 100,000 computers worldwide... (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 13/ ...about 25 percent of them in the United States, including some at NASA, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses. The Gozi virus was so successful that Kuzmin rented it out to other criminal organizations for a cut of the proceeds. (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 14/ ... He [Kuzmin] was sentenced to time served in May 2016 and sent home to Russia🇷🇺."
"Webzilla officer Constantin Luchian… handled the registration for [deported, convicted Russian🇷🇺 felon] Kuzmin [of] Fresh IT Solutions Inc. in 2010 and ServerClub Inc. in 2011. (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 15/ ServerClub remains an active Florida company, with [deported, convicted Russian🇷🇺 felon] Kuzmin listed in its 2017 annual report as its chief director. ServerClub describes itself as a dedicated hosting provider operating on leased servers. (con't)

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 16/ "The address listed for Server club in documents and one its website is the same one as Incorporate Now in Lake Worth, and as Wz Communications, the web hosting company thought to have been used in the spread of the Methbot virus."
Whew.
A couple more tweets on Roy Black...

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 17/ Roy Black Esq, who is representing @BuzzFeed against the lawsuit brought by Cyprus🇨🇾-based entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev re: #SteeleDossier, was Jeffrey Epstein's attorney in a previous case:

https://twitter.com/Peaceful_411/status/1032826889914724352

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 18/ From December 2014 (Roy Black and Jeffrey Epstein):

https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1029004478186287104

@kelly2277 @ThomasS4217 @PortlusGlam @EDNYnews @McClatchyDC @BuzzFeed 19/ Short <thread> on a lawyer who worked for Roy Black Esq., and succumbed to "mysterious infection" which didn't respond to anti-biotics July 21, 2017 while on a European cruise😢: /end

https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1029004478186287104