Russia Arrests REvil Ransomware Gang Responsible for High-Profile Cyber Attacks

In an unparalleled go, Russia’s Federal Security Support (FSB), the country’s principal security agency, on Friday disclosed that it arrested quite a few associates belonging to the infamous REvil ransomware gang and neutralized its functions.

The surprise procedure, which it explained was carried out at the request of the U.S. authorities, observed the legislation enforcement company carry out raids at 25 addresses in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad and Lipetsk regions that belonged to 14 suspected users of the arranged cybercrime syndicate.

“In purchase to apply the criminal plan, these folks created malicious program, arranged the theft of money from the lender accounts of overseas citizens and their cashing, such as by the buy of expensive products on the Internet,” the FSB reported in a statement.

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In addition, the FSB seized above 426 million rubles, which include in cryptocurrency, $600,000, €500,000, as perfectly as laptop or computer products, crypto wallets used to commit crimes, and 20 luxurious cars that ended up procured with cash obtained by illicit suggests.

A person of the most active ransomware crews very last yr, REvil took duty for substantial-profile attacks versus JBS and Kaseya, amid a string of numerous other people. The U.S. authorities advised Reuters that 1 of the arrested folks was also driving the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in Might 2021, at the time once more confirming REvil’s connections to one more team called DarkSide.

The group formally closed shop in Oct 2021 soon after the U.S. intervened to consider its network of dark web servers offline. The future month, Romanian legislation enforcement authorities introduced the arrest of two individuals for their roles as affiliates of the REvil ransomware family members, even as the U.S. billed a 22-calendar year-aged Ukrainian citizen linked to the ransomware gang for orchestrating the Kaseya ransomware attack.

All people detained have been billed with “unlawful circulation of indicates of payment,” a prison offense punishable by up to 6 many years in prison. The suspects were not named, but Reuters famous that a Moscow courtroom discovered two of the gentlemen as Roman Muromsky and Andrei Bessonov.

The crackdown also comes as menace actors possible affiliated with Russian secret expert services crippled much of the Ukrainian government’s public-experiencing electronic infrastructure, in addition to defacing some of them with messages that alleged people’s personal knowledge experienced been designed general public and that the details saved in the servers was getting ruined.

It continues to be to be what effect the arrests will have on the greater ransomware ecosystem, which has by and significant continued to flourish despite a quantity of law enforcement steps, partly driven by Russia’s willingness to seem the other way when it will come to harboring cybercriminals in the nation, proficiently enabling the lousy actors to work with impunity.

“Whilst we are still hunting to comprehend the accurate effects of these arrests, we applaud the Russian governing administration for the steps it took currently with regard to the REvil felony ransomware team,” Matt Olney, director of risk intelligence and interdiction at Cisco Talos, stated. “It really is essential that criminal cyber actors and corporations not be authorized to run with impunity. And so any outcome that qualified prospects to degrading of their abilities is undoubtedly a excellent issue.”

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