A Russian man has been indicted by US authorities for his alleged connection to several ransomware schemes that netted him and other attackers nearly $200 million — most of which came from crypto.
Some of the victims of ransomware attacks include hospitals, schools, and police departments.
$200 Million in Ransomware Payouts
The culprit – Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev – is part of three ransomware gangs: Lockbit, Babuk and Hive. In total, they got nearly $200 million from victims after soliciting more than $400 million in funding, according to figures from Department of Justice.
The Department noted that Mateev was known online by several aliases, including “Wazawaka”, “m1x”, “Boriselcin”, and “Uhodiransomwa.”
“These international crimes demand a coordinated response,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in the DOJ statement. “We will not stop at imposing consequences on the worst actors in the cybercrime ecosystem.”
Some of Mateev’s alleged crimes include helping deploy the Babuk ransomware against the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC in April 2021, as well as a nonprofit behavioral health care organization in New Jersey. in May 2022.
In the first case, the criminal and his co-conspirators threatened to disclose sensitive material to the public unless payment was made. Babuk ransomware actors have carried out at least 65 attacks worldwide since December 2020, demanded $49 million in ransom, and received at least $13 million.
In January 2022, cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs reported that Mateev claimed to be a member of the Darkside ransomware group, according to Bloomberg. Darkside was responsible for the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline in 2021, which netted the attackers 63.7 BTC in forced payments.
Crypto’s Role in Ransomware
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have become popular tools for conducting ransomware attacks since 2021. Unlike traditional bank transfers, hackers can easily remain anonymous when requesting payments in Bitcoin, and such payments cannot be reversed or recovered by a bank or government.
According to Chainalysis, ransomware FALL for the most part in 2022 to $456.8 million, compared to $765.6 million in 2021. Experts attribute the decline to a decrease in the willingness of victims to pay ransom – especially since the rules on penalties against such payments by the US Treasury Department makes them more risky to conduct.
In January, the FBI Office has partnered that it took down the HIVE ransomware network, which has members across North America and Europe.
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