Russian hackers are facing the heat on both sides of the Bering Sea, with a pair of Russian nationals getting pinged for their hacking or hacking-related activities.
Botnet blues
Russian national Ilya Angelov, aged 40, was sentenced to a two-year prison sentence for his role in operating a botnet linked to ransomware attacks on a large number of companies in the United States.
“The FBI has identified over 70 U.S. corporations that were infected with ransomware by one organisation linked to Angelov’s group, resulting in over $14 million in extortion payments,” the US Department of Justice said in a March 24 statement.
“Another group that distributed ransomware paid Angelov’s group over a million dollars for access to the Mario Kart botnet.”
Angelov has also been fined US $100,000 and has entered a money judgment against him to the tune of US$1.6 million dollars.
“May this sentencing serve as a strong message to cyber criminals who believe they can hide behind screens and false identities: you cannot escape the FBI’s reach. You will be held accountable,” Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan of the FBI Detroit Field Office said.
“This successful investigation reflects the FBI’s ongoing commitment to identifying, tracking, and dismantling the criminal networks that financially exploit individuals and U.S. corporations. I would like to thank the FBI Detroit Cyber Task Force for their exceptional work in this investigation and to the US Attorney’s Office for ensuring justice was achieved.”
Forum failures
Meanwhile, Russian state media TASS is reporting the arrest of the alleged administrator of cybercrime forum LeakBase, which was taken down earlier this month by US authorities.
A Russian law enforcement official told TASS that the man, a 33-year-old resident of the city of Taganrog in the country’s south-west, is suspected of operating "one of the largest international hacker platforms”.
Irina Volk, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, had previously told TASS that members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Bureau of Special Technical Measures had detained the individual.
According to Volk, “the platform was used for four years to trade stolen personal data. Specifically, over 147,000 users registered on the forum were able to sell and buy this information, as well as use it to commit fraud against individuals,” TASS reported on March 25.
David Hollingworth
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.