Cyprus Extradites Alleged Cyber-Criminal to the US

An alleged cyber-felony has turn out to be the initial Cypriot countrywide to be extradited from the Republic of Cyprus to the United States.

Joshua Polloso Epifaniou, a resident of Nicosia, Cyprus, arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on July 17. The 21-yr-previous, who is required in two US states, was arrested in Cyprus in February 2018.  

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A 5-count indictment filed in the Northern District of Ga rates Epifaniou with conspiracy to dedicate wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to dedicate computer fraud and identity theft, and extortion connected to a secured pc. 

A second 24-count indictment filed in the District of Arizona accuses the Cypriot of conspiracy to dedicate laptop or computer hacking, obtaining details from a shielded laptop or computer, intentional harm to a guarded personal computer, and threatening to injury a guarded computer.

The initially indictment alleges that in between Oct 2014 and November 2016, Epifaniou was component of a danger team that carried out ransomware attacks in opposition to a free of charge on the internet recreation publisher primarily based in California, a New York components business, an on line work web site headquartered in Virginia, and a sports activities information website centered in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by Turner Broadcasting Technique Inc.

Epifaniou and his co-conspirators are accused of getting unauthorized accessibility to each individual firm’s individual determining info (PII) and threatening to publish the data on the internet except they acquired a ransom. The entities allegedly specific by Epifaniou ended up defrauded of $56,850 in Bitcoin, while two victims incurred further losses of $530k in remediation expenditures. 

The 2nd indictment accuses Epifaniou of carrying out a brute power attack versus Arizona corporation Ripoff Report. After compromising the firm’s process, the Cypriot allegedly threatened to publish the private data it contained except if he received $90k.

It is further more alleged that between October 2016 and May possibly 2017, Epifaniou labored with an affiliate at “SEO Company,” a search engine advertising firm dependent in Glendale, California, to determine businesses that may possibly want to spend for the elimination of issues posted about them on Ripoff Report’s web site. 

Epifaniou and his co-conspirator are accused of utilizing their unauthorized accessibility to Ripoff Report’s databases to erase at least 100 problems, charging Web optimization Company’s “clients” somewhere around $3,000 to $5,000 for each individual removal.

Epifaniou is scheduled to go before US Magistrate Choose Alan Baverman in the Northern District of Ga today for his arraignment.