Flashback malware author unmasked?

An estimated 38,000 users is still infected with the Flashback Trojan, the first malware targeting Mac users that didn’t have to get their permission to be downloaded, which resulted in a 600K strong botnet of computers set on redirecting Google search results and gaming Google’s ad networks to earn revenue for its creator(s).

That was almost exactly a year ago, and now well-known security reporter Brian Krebs thinks he may just have tracked down the actual developer of the malware.

He first discovered a series of private messages exchanged by one of the top members of an online forum focused on black hat SEO and a user named “Mavook” who claimed to be the creator of Flashback botnet for Macs.

By digging through tidbits of online information about this user and tying him to a private domain, a music sales site, several email addresses and a Skype account he unearthed the name of a IT firm in Saransk (Mordovia Outsourcing Company) and the name of its founder – a 30-year-old named Maxim Dmitrievich Selihanovich – who he believes to be the Flashback author.