Russian Hacker Sentenced to 2 Years for TA551 Botnet-Driven Ransomware Attacks

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ said a Russian national has been sentenced to two years in prison for managing a botnet that was used to launch ransomware attacks against U.S. companies. Ilya Angelov, 40, of Tolyatti, Russia, was also fined $100,000. Angelov, who went by the online aliases...

Russian Cybercrime Platform RAMP Forum Seized by FBI

US authorities have seized the RAMP cybercrime forum, taking down both its clearnet and dark web domains in a major hit to the ransomware infrastructure...

How Cryptocurrency Turns to Cash in Russian Banks

A financial firm registered in Canada has emerged as the payment processor for dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services aimed at Russian-speaking customers, new research finds. Meanwhile, an investigation into the Vancouver street address used by this...

Four REvil Ransomware Members Sentenced in Rare Russian Cybercrime Convictions

Four members of the now-defunct REvil ransomware operation have been sentenced to several years in prison in Russia, marking one of the rare instances where cybercriminals from the country have been convicted of hacking and money laundering charges. Russian news publication Kommersant reported th...

Authorities Ramp Up Efforts to Capture the Mastermind Behind Emotet

Law enforcement authorities behind Operation Endgame are seeking information related to an individual who goes by the name Odd and is allegedly the mastermind behind the Emotet malware. Odd is also said to go by the nicknames Aron, C700, Cbd748, Ivanov Odd, Mors, Morse, and Veron over the past fe...

U.S. Charges Russian Man as Boss of LockBit Ransomware Group

The United States joined the United Kingdom and Australia today in sanctioning 31-year-old Russian national Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev as the alleged leader of the infamous ransomware group LockBit. The U.S. Department of Justice also indicted Khoroshev and charged him with using Lockbit to attac...

Russian FSB Counterintelligence Chief Gets 9 Years in Cybercrime Bribery Scheme

The head of counterintelligence for a division of the Russian Federal Security Service FSB was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for accepting a USD $1.7 million bribe to ignore the activities of a prolific Russian cybercrime group that hacked thousands of e-commerce websites. T...

From Cybercrime Saul Goodman to the Russian GRU

In 2021, the exclusive Russian cybercrime forum Mazafaka was hacked. The leaked user database shows one of the forums founders was an attorney who advised Russias top hackers on the legal risks of their work, and what to do if they got caught. A review of this users hacker identities shows that...

Meet Ika & Sal: The Bulletproof Hosting Duo from Hell

In 2020, the United States brought charges against four men accused of building a bulletproof hosting empire that once dominated the Russian cybercrime industry and supported multiple organized cybercrime groups. All four pleaded guilty to conspiracy and racketeering charges. But there is a...

34 Russian Cybercrime Groups Stole Over 50 Million Passwords with Stealer Malware

As many as 34 Russian-speaking gangs distributing information-stealing malware under the stealer-as-a-service model stole no fewer than 50 million passwords in the first seven months of 2022. "The underground market value of stolen logs and compromised card details is estimated around $5.8...

FBI Warns About Hackers Selling VPN Credentials for U.S. College Networks

Network credentials and virtual private network VPN access for colleges and universities based in the U.S. are being advertised for sale on underground and public criminal marketplaces. "This exposure of sensitive credential and network access information, especially privileged user accounts, cou...

Lawmakers Probe Early Release of Top RU Cybercrook

Aleksei Burkov, seated second from right, attends a hearing in Jerusalem in 2015. Image: Andrei Shirokov / Tass via Getty Images. Aleksei Burkov, a cybercriminal who long operated two of Russias most exclusive underground hacking forums, was arrested in 2015 by Israeli authorities. The Russian...

Conti Ransomware Group Diaries, Part I: Evasion

A Ukrainian security researcher this week leaked several years of internal chat logs and other sensitive data tied to Conti, an aggressive and ruthless Russian cybercrime group that focuses on deploying its ransomware to companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue. The chat logs offer...

Who is the Network Access Broker ‘Wazawaka?’

In a great many ransomware attacks, the criminals who pillage the victims network are not the same crooks who gained the initial access to the victim organization. More commonly, the infected PC or stolen VPN credentials the gang used to break in were purchased from a cybercriminal middleman know...

The ‘Groove’ Ransomware Gang Was a Hoax

A number of publications in September warned about the emergence of "Groove," a new ransomware group that called on competing extortion gangs to unite in attacking U.S. government interests online. It now appears that Groove was all a big hoax designed to toy with security firms and journalists...

Cyberattackers Target Top Russian Cybercrime Forums

Maza, a place online for fraudsters and extorters to connect to pull off their operations, has been breached by an unknown attacker, in just the latest in a series of attacks targeting elite Russian-language cybercrime forums. Members are worried that their data is being used by researchers and l...

Three Top Russian Cybercrime Forums Hacked

Over the past few weeks, three of the longest running and most venerated Russian-language online forums serving thousands of experienced cybercriminals have been hacked. In two of the intrusions, the attackers made off with the forums user databases, including email and Internet addresses and...

Researchers Unearth Links Between SunCrypt and QNAPCrypt Ransomware

SunCrypt, a ransomware strain that went on to infect several targets last year, may be an updated version of the QNAPCrypt ransomware, which targeted Linux-based file storage systems, according to new research. "While the two ransomware families are operated by distinct different threat actors on...

U.S. Voter Databases Offered for Free on Dark Web, Report

UPDATE Personal information for several million American voters has turned up on a Russian underground cybercrime forum, according to reports – and users are purportedly looking to monetize it using a recently launched State Department program meant to prevent election-meddling. The personal...

Lurk Criminal Gang Also Behind Angler Exploit Kit

The June arrest of a Russian cybercrime gang responsible for the Lurk Trojan also put to rest the infamous Angler Exploit Kit. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab today published a detailed report on the Lurk takedown, confirming at the same time the connection between the Lurk gang and Angler. Activity...