A Russian national has been charged and indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) for launching ransomware attacks against “thousands of victims” in the country and across the world.
Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev (aka Wazawaka, m1x, Boriselcin, and Uhodiransomwar), 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.
“These victims include law enforcement and other government agencies, hospitals, and schools,” DoJ said. “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.”
LockBit, Babuk, and Hive operate alike, leveraging unlawfully obtained access to exfiltrate valuable data and deploy ransomware on compromised networks. The threat actors also threaten to publicize the stolen information on a data leak site in an attempt to negotiate a ransom amount with victims.
images from Hacker News
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