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Friday, October 23, 2026 · UTC
Crypto

US and European Authorities Dismantle Sality Bitcoin Botnet

Justice Department and CrowdStrike disrupted Sality botnet after eight years of stealing cryptocurrency.

TruthFoundry News Desk
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Stands on 8 placed sources from 2 publishers.
As of 2026-09-03 22:40 UTC. Market figures are as the cited sources reported them at that time and may have moved since. This is news, not investment advice.
The Justice Department and CrowdStrike announced on Tuesday that they had disrupted Sality, a peer-to-peer botnet that has been running since 2003. [1] The Federal Grand Jury in Los Angeles indicted Southworth on three counts of threatening to kill President Donald Trump and additional charges of cyberstalking and harassment against the president's personal lawyer and family. [2] US authorities arrested Benjamin Azariah Southworth, a 40-year-old resident of the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, on September 3, 2026, for threatening to kill President Donald Trump. [3] CrowdStrike estimates that the Sality operator stole at least $150,000 through its primary payload, EggJagger, over the past eight years. [4] CrowdStrike values the unspent stolen cryptocurrency portfolio at a peak of about 147 million rubles in January 2025, which is roughly the purchasing power of $4 million in a Western capital. [5] The EggJagger payload monitors the clipboard for cryptocurrency wallet addresses and swaps them for the operator's own addresses, causing victims to send funds to strangers. [6] Federal prosecutors accused Southworth of publishing the home addresses and phone numbers of the president's lawyer's family members, an act known as doxxing. [7] Prosecutors allege that Southworth used accounts on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and a personal website to publicly express hostility toward President Trump and his followers. [8]
Proof8 sources · 2 publishers
What this stands on
  1. The Justice Department and CrowdStrike announced on Tuesday that they had disrupted Sality, a peer-to-peer botnet that has been running since 2003. · Decrypt
  2. The Federal Grand Jury in Los Angeles indicted Southworth on three counts of threatening to kill President Donald Trump and additional charges of cyberstalking and harassment against the president's personal lawyer and family. · El Tiempo
  3. US authorities arrested Benjamin Azariah Southworth, a 40-year-old resident of the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, on September 3, 2026, for threatening to kill President Donald Trump. · El Tiempo
  4. CrowdStrike estimates that the Sality operator stole at least $150,000 through its primary payload, EggJagger, over the past eight years. · Decrypt
  5. CrowdStrike values the unspent stolen cryptocurrency portfolio at a peak of about 147 million rubles in January 2025, which is roughly the purchasing power of $4 million in a Western capital. · Decrypt
  6. The EggJagger payload monitors the clipboard for cryptocurrency wallet addresses and swaps them for the operator's own addresses, causing victims to send funds to strangers. · Decrypt
  7. Federal prosecutors accused Southworth of publishing the home addresses and phone numbers of the president's lawyer's family members, an act known as doxxing. · El Tiempo
  8. Prosecutors allege that Southworth used accounts on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and a personal website to publicly express hostility toward President Trump and his followers. · El Tiempo
We could not place any of them by their address. None is an official body: that part stands on reporting, not on the underlying document or transcript.
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