Security News > 2023 > December > US readies prison cell for another Russian Trickbot developer

Another member of the Trickbot malware crew now faces a lengthy prison sentence amid US law enforcement's ongoing search for its leading members.

Russian national Vladimir Dunaev, 40, faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison for his involvement in the now-shuttered Trickbot malware, which was often used to deploy ransomware.

"As set forth in the plea agreement, Vladimir Dunaev misused his special skills as a computer programmer to develop the Trickbot suite of malware," said Rebecca C Lutzko, US attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, in response to Dunaev's plea hearing.

Dunaev was extradited to the US from the Republic of Korea in 2021 and joins a growing list of Trickbot members firmly in the crosshairs of US prosecutors.

The UK's National Crime Agency said the group had extorted at least $180 million from victims globally, at least $34 million of which came from 149 victims in the UK. Trickbot started life as a banking trojan and is widely believed to be the successor to the Dyre malware, another banking trojan first spotted two years earlier in 2014.

The code similarities between the two led researchers to believe the same team behind Dyre may have also helped bring Trickbot to life, though US prosecutors have made no such links.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/01/trickbot_dev_guilty_plea/