Software

U.S. authorities have arrested the alleged owner of the worlds largest torrent site after Apple shared personal details linked to an iTunes transaction that enabled federal investigators to locate their suspect.

Artem Vaulin, a 30-year-old man born in Ukraine, was arrested in Poland on Wednesday and is charged with criminal copyright infringement and money laundering, according to TorrentFreak. A federal court in Chicago has also demanded the seizure of KAT’s domains.

“Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits. His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice.”

If KAT’s domains remain down, as they are right now, clones of KAT will start appearing online. We’ll recommend everyone to stay clear of all such clone sites as they could have malicious intent of infecting your computer.

Vaulin’s location was discovered after Apple handed over details pertaining to an iTunes transaction. Investigators initially found the IP address by cross-referencing addresses used to login to iTunes and those used to login to KAT’s Facebook account.

“Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook,” the complaint reads.