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russian law enforcement agencies have dismantled the notorious hacking group revil, believed to be behind ransomware attacks in the u.s. involving cryptocurrency. But it is unlikely that moscow will surrender russian citizens to washington, the transaction was conducted at the request of the u.s, in spite of the increased geopolitical tensions between the two powers.
Russian FSB Hits Cyber Crime Group Revil.
On Friday, the russian federal security service (fsb) announced that it had carried out raids against revil in the capital moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, and the areas of lipetsk, with the department of surveys of the ministry of the interior (mvd). The police searched 25 addresses and detained 14 alleged members of organised crime.
Fund valued at more than 426 million rubles ($5.6 million) including cryptocurrency, 600,000 dollars and 500,000 euros, and crypto wallets, the computing equipment used to commit crimes, and 20 top-of-the-line vehicles purchased with funds from criminal activity were seized, csf detailed in a press release, emphasizing:
as a result of the joint actions of the fsb and the mvd, the organized criminal community ceased to exist, the information infrastructure used for criminal purposes was neutralized.
Fsb added that the arrested persons developed malicious software and organised the theft of funds from foreign bank accounts. Russian officials claim to have "established the complete composition" of Revil and the involvement of its members in the "illegal circulation of means of payment and documented illegal activities."
The United States applauds Russia's actions against pirates.
Russia’s main law enforcement agency also said that the operation has been conducted on request of the respective U.S. authorities who shared information about Revil’s presumed leader and his part in attacks on foreign high-tech companies through malicious software used to encrypt data and extort money for its decryption.
Russian news agency interfax reported that the tverskoy court in moscow detained two russians until march 13 — roman muromsky, a 33-year-old entrepreneur and web developer with no prior conviction, and andrew bessonov, pretended to be a revil hacker. They were accused of committing crimes under section 2 of s. 187 — "illegal circulation of means of payment" — of the Russian penal code. The mvd has asked the court for similar measures against three other detainees.
revil has been blamed for high-profile crypto ransomware hits in the united states, including the one on the colonial pipeline which caused gas shortages on the american east coast last may. Its authors used a "darkside" encryption software which is believed to have been developed by the group. Another case was the attack on the world's largest meat packing enterprise, jbs, as reported by Reuters in June.
in its announcement, fsb noted that russia has informed u.s. authorities about the results of the operation. The us commended the arrests, with reuters quoting a senior official saying: "we understand that one of the people who was detained today was responsible for the attack on colonial pipeline last spring." A source familiar with the investigation said Interfax that Russia is not going to extradite all Revil members with Russian citizenship to the US.
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