WireX Android botnet administrator Izzet Mert Ozek has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly launching a distributed denial-of-service attack against an American multinational hotel chain, BleepingComputer reports.
The WireX botnet, which contains over 120,000 compromised Android devices, was leveraged by Ozek to target the hotel chain's online booking system website in August 2017, according to the Justice Department. The FBI and various organizations, including Google, Akamai and RiskIQ, had worked to immediately disrupt the WireX botnet by the end of August 2017.
"As part of the DDoS attack, the attacker directed large amounts of computer network traffic to Company A’s servers that hosted Company A’s website and online booking service, causing available resources to be consumed by the attack and resulting in no or few resources left to accommodate legitimate users," court documents revealed.
Ozek, who is believed to be in Turkey, has not yet been given his warrant, but could face up to ten years in prison if sentenced guilty.
