MULTINATIONAL EFFORT STRIKES MAJOR BOTNET OPERATION RESPONSIBLE FOR INFECTING MILLIONS OF DEVICES WITH MALWARE
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(ORILLIA, ON) - An Ottawa resident is facing criminal charges following an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Cybercrime Investigations Team (CIT).
In January 2026, the OPP CIT launched an investigation into two major botnets, Kimwolf and Aisuru, that are believed to be responsible for some of the largest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks recorded to date.
In parallel to the OPP’s investigation, law enforcement agencies in Canada, the United States and Germany conducted their own independent operations targeting botnet administrators and botnet infrastructure.
On Thursday, March 19, 2026, OPP CIT officers executed a search warrant at a residence in Ottawa, with assistance from the Ottawa Police Service, where investigators seized multiple electronic devices.
As a result of the investigation, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, Jacob BUTLER, age 23 of Ottawa, was arrested and charged by the OPP with the following Criminal Code offences:
- Unauthorized use of computer, s. 342.1(1)(a)
- Possession of device to obtain unauthorized use of computer system or to commit mischief, s. 342.2(1)
- Mischief in relation to computer data, s. 430 (1.1)
The accused remains in custody and is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.