Security News
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged two Russian nationals in connection with masterminding the 2014 digital heist of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox. According to unsealed indictments released last week, Alexey Bilyuchenko, 43, and Aleksandr Verner, 29, have been accused of conspiring to launder approximately 647,000 bitcoins stolen from September 2011 through at least May 2014 as a result of unauthorized access to a server holding crypto wallets used by Mt. Gox customers.
American prosecutors have unsealed an indictment against two Russians who allegedly had a hand in the ransacking and collapse of Mt Gox a decade ago, an implosion that cost the cryptocurrency exchange's thousands of customers most of their digital coins. Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner, 29, were charged with conspiring to launder about 647,000 Bitcoins stolen from Mt Gox starting in 2011, fueling the exchange's eventual collapse in 2014.
Squad claimed an attack that took down Russian telecom provider Infotel JSC on Thursday evening. Among other things, Moscow-based Infotel provides connectivity services between the Russian Central Bank and other Russian banks, online stores, and credit institutions.
Russian nationals Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner have been charged with the 2011 hacking of the leading cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox and the laundering of around 647,000 bitcoins they stole. The U.S. Department of Justice also charged Bilyuchenko with conspiring with Russian national Alexander Vinnik to run the unlicensed BTC-e Bitcoin trading platform between 2011 and 2017.
Malware designed to disrupt electric power grids was likely developed by a Russian contractor, according to Mandiant's threat intel team that discovered the malicious software and dubbed it CosmicEnergy. The team say it's likely a contractor created the malware as a red-teaming tool for simulated power disruption exercises hosted by Rostelecom-Solar, a Russian cybersecurity company.
Mandiant security researchers have discovered a new malware called CosmicEnergy designed to disrupt industrial systems and linked to Russian cybersecurity outfit Rostelecom-Solar. CosmicEnergy was discovered after a sample was uploaded to the VirusTotal malware analysis platform in December 2021 by someone with a Russian IP address.
A Russian IT worker accused of participating in pro-Ukraine denial of service attacks against Russian government websites has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony and ordered to pay 800,000 rubles. According to the state-owned TASS news agency, a Russian regional court handed down the sentence against Yevgeny Kotikov, who is said to have supported Kyiv during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Babuk therefore serves as a sort-of instruction manual that teaches would-be cybercrimals how to handle the "We can decrypt this but you can't, so pay us the blackmail money or you'll never see your data again" part of a ransomware attack. The US indictment explicitly accuses Matveev of two ransomware attacks in the State of New Jersey, and one in the District of Columbia.
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.
The Feds have sanctioned a Russian national accused of using LockBit, Babuk, and Hive ransomware to extort a law enforcement agency and nonprofit healthcare organization in New Jersey, and the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC, among "Numerous" other victim organizations in the US and globally. "From Russia and hiding behind multiple aliases, Matveev is alleged to have used these ransomware strains to encrypt and hold hostage for ransom the data of numerous victims, including hospitals, schools, nonprofits, and law enforcement agencies, like the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC," US Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a statement.