US indicts leader of Qakbot botnet linked to ransomware attacks

### Executive summary: The U.S. has indicted Rustam Rafailevich Gallyamov for leading the Qakbot botnet (aka Qbot/Pinkslipbot), malware that infected over 700,000 machines, functioned as a banking trojan/backdoor/worm, and provided initial access for many major ransomware groups—contributing to hundreds of millions in damages; law enforcement dismantled parts of the infrastructure and seized over $24 million in digital assets.