identities of two Russian hackers and charged them for developing
and distributing the Dridex banking
Trojan using which the duo stole more than $100 million over a
period of 10 years.
Maksim
Yakubets, the leader of ‘Evil Corp’ hacking group, and his
co-conspirator Igor Turashev
primarily distributed Dridex — also known as ‘Bugat‘ and
‘Cridex‘ —
through multi-million email campaigns and targeted numerous
organizations around the world.
[2][3][4][5]
The State Department has also announced a reward of up to $5
million—the largest offered bounty to date for a cybercrime
suspect—for providing information that could lead to the arrest of
Yakubets, who remains at large.
“Bugat is a multifunction malware package designed to automate the
theft of confidential personal and financial information, such as
online banking credentials, from infected computers,” the DoJ said
in its press
release[6].
“Bugat malware was specifically crafted to defeat antivirus and
other protective measures employed by victims. Later versions of
the malware were designed with the added function of assisting in
the installation of ransomware.”
charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with the
infamous “Zeus” banking malware that stole $70 million from
victims’ bank accounts.
Starting May 2009, Yakubets and his co-conspirators allegedly
employed widespread computer intrusions, malicious software, and
fraud in an effort to steal millions of dollars from numerous bank
accounts in the United States and elsewhere.
The hackers infected thousands of business computers with
malware that captured passwords, account numbers, and other
information necessary to log into online banking accounts, and then
used the stolen data to steal money from victims’ bank
accounts.
that deployed two of the most damaging pieces of financial malware
ever used and resulted in tens of millions of dollars of losses to
victims worldwide,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney
General of DoJ’s Criminal Division.
According to the Justice Department, the FBI discovered the
identities of both Russian cybercriminals with the help of its
foreign counterpart National Crime Agency (NCA) in the United
Kingdom.
The joint investigation revealed that Yakubets “also provides
direct assistance to the Russian government” by stealing
confidential documents through state-sponsored cyberattacks.
The duo has been alleged to have victimized 21 specific
municipalities, private companies, banks, and non-profit
organizations in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas,
Washington, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, and North Carolina,
including multiple entities in Nebraska and a religious
congregation.
The United States has also rolled out sanctions against 17 other
individuals and 7 Russian companies for their connection with the
Evil Corp hacking group.
References
- ^
Dridex banking Trojan
(thehackernews.com) - ^
Maksim Yakubets
(www.justice.gov) - ^
Igor Turashev
(www.justice.gov) - ^
Bugat
(thehackernews.com) - ^
Cridex
(thehackernews.com) - ^
press release
(www.justice.gov)