U.S. Charges Ukrainian Hacker Over Role in Raccoon Stealer Malware Service

A 26-12 months-old Ukrainian national has been charged in the U.S. for his alleged position in the Raccoon Stealer malware-as-a-assistance (MaaS) operation.

Mark Sokolovsky, who was arrested by Dutch regulation enforcement immediately after leaving Ukraine on March 4, 2022, in what’s explained to be a Porsche Cayenne, is currently being held in the Netherlands and awaits extradition to the U.S.

“Individuals who deployed Raccoon Infostealer to steal facts from victims leased entry to the malware for approximately $200 for every thirty day period, paid for by cryptocurrency,” the U.S. Office of Justice (DoJ) reported. “These men and women used many ruses, this kind of as email phishing, to put in the malware on to the pcs of unsuspecting victims.”

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Sokolovsky is claimed to have absent by various on the web monikers like Photix, raccoonstealer, and black21jack77777 on on the internet cybercrime forums to advertise the company for sale.

Raccoon Stealer, mainly dispersed underneath the guise of cracked software, is known to be just one of the most prolific data stealers, place to use by various cybercriminal actors for its considerable options and the customizability offered by the malware.

Active because April 2019, the menace actors behind the procedure abruptly halted function on the task earlier this March, citing the loss of a main member because of to a “unique operation.”

When this was interpreted as the death of a developer in the Russo-Ukrainian war, court files display that it was without a doubt Sokolovsky’s arrest and the subsequent dismantling of the malware’s infrastructure by Italian and Dutch authorities that led to the short-term shutdown.

That claimed, a 2nd model of Raccoon Stealer prepared in C/C++ has since begun circulating on underground forums as of June 2022, with its authors touting the tool’s simplicity of use.

“It is so quick and very simple that with its assistance it will not be challenging for a baby to discover how to process logs,” the cybercrime gang posted in a message shared on its Telegram channel in May well.

According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the malware is estimated to have facilitated the theft of 50 million one of a kind qualifications and varieties of identification (e.g., email addresses, lender accounts, cryptocurrency addresses, and credit history card figures) from millions of victims globally.

The credentials allegedly consist of over four million email addresses, prompting the FBI to start a web-site raccoon.ic3[.]gov to support customers look at if their email addresses exhibit up in the Raccoon Stealer knowledge.

Sokolovsky has been billed with just one count of conspiracy to dedicate laptop fraud and connected exercise in relationship with personal computers 1 depend of conspiracy to commit wire fraud 1 depend of conspiracy to dedicate revenue laundering and 1 rely of aggravated id theft.

If confirmed guilty, the defendant faces a highest penalty of 20 decades in prison for the wire fraud and cash laundering offenses, five years for the conspiracy to dedicate computer system fraud charge, and a obligatory consecutive two-12 months term for the aggravated identity theft offense.

“This sort of malware feeds the cybercrime ecosystem, harvesting precious details and making it possible for cyber criminals to steal from innocent People and citizens around the world,” U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff mentioned.

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