The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has arrested Yune Wang, a 35-year-old national of the People's Republic of China and a citizen-by-investment of St. Kitts and Nevis, for his alleged involvement in a botnet scam responsible for various cybercrimes, including cyber attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations.

According to a May 29 indictment, Wang is accused of creating and distributing malware to build a network of millions of compromised residential Windows computers globally, affecting over 19 million IP addresses through the 911 S5 botnet from 2014 to 2020. He allegedly sold these hijacked IP addresses to cybercriminals for cryptocurrencies, facilitating numerous computer-enabled crimes such as financial fraud, identity theft, and child exploitation in more than 200 countries.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that wallet addresses linked to Wang held over $130 million in digital assets obtained through illicit means. They noted that the 911 S5 botnet deceived victims by offering free VPN services that purportedly enhanced privacy but actually hijacked their IP addresses, generating millions of dollars annually for its administrators via a subscription-based service for cybercriminals.

DOJ officials highlighted that 911 S5 customers targeted pandemic relief programs, with an estimated 560,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims originating from compromised IP addresses, resulting in a confirmed loss exceeding $5.9 billion.

A coordinated effort by law enforcement agencies from the United States, Singapore, Thailand, and Germany led to the seizure of 23 domains and over 70 servers central to Wang's operations, along with $30 million in assets linked to 911 S5.

In a related development, Cointelegraph recently reported that China may have embedded a Trojan Horse in U.S. Bitcoin mining infrastructure through locally manufactured ASIC mining rigs, potentially allowing Chinese intelligence to conduct cyber-espionage targeting sensitive sites such as military installations, power grids, and communication networks.