Security News > 2023 > May > U.S. Offers $10 Million Bounty for Capture of Notorious Russian Ransomware Operator

A Russian national has been charged and indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for launching ransomware attacks against "Thousands of victims" in the country and across the world.

Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, the 30-year-old individual in question, is alleged to be a "Central figure" in the development and deployment of LockBit, Babuk, and Hive ransomware variants since at least June 2020.

"Total ransom demands allegedly made by the members of these three global ransomware campaigns to their victims amount to as much as $400 million, while total victim ransom payments amount to as much as $200 million."

The financial mechanics associated with RaaS has also lowered the barrier to entry for aspiring cybercriminals, who can avail the services offered by the ransomware developers to mount the attacks and pocket the lion's share of the illicit profits.

Czech cybersecurity firm Avast, earlier this year, published a free decryptor for BianLian ransomware to help victims of the malware recover locked files without having to pay the threat actors.

The security bulletin also arrives amid the emergence of a new ransomware strain dubbed LokiLocker that shares similarities with another locker called BlackBit and has been observed actively targeting entities in South Korea.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/us-offers-10-million-bounty-for-capture.html