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The US government has obtained the extradition of an alleged Russian hacker who allegedly served as a key manager of the prolific Phobos ransomware operation.
Prosecutors He said on Monday Evgeny Ptitsyn, 42, was recently extradited from South Korea to appear in federal court in Maryland on November 4. Ptitsyn is accused of managing the sale, distribution and operation of Phobos, a type of ransomware operation that cybercriminals used to launch it. Cyber attacks and extortion of at least $16 million from more than a thousand victims from the public and private sectors globally.
that The newly unsealed indictment He reveals that among these victims is a Maryland-based company that provides accounting and consulting services to federal agencies; Many health care providers in Maryland; the New York-based Law Enforcement Association; an Illinois-based contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy; And a children’s hospital in North Carolina.
The unnamed companies listed in the indictment against Ptitsyn paid ransoms ranging from $12,000 to $300,000, with one victim — an unnamed health care provider in Maryland — paying $2,300 for the decryption key to regain access to their badly scrambled files. detrimental.
According to the indictment, Ptitsyn joined Operation Phobos in 2020. Prosecutors say Ptitsyn helped develop and distribute the ransomware to affiliates, who act as contractors, and who use the ransomware to launch attacks.
Ptitsyn and his co-conspirators allegedly advertised the Phobos ransomware for free through posts on cybercrime forums, but then charged their affiliates a fee of about $300 for the decryption key to access the data they stole from the victim.
The feds said they arrested Ptitsyn in part because the decryption fees were transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet “in Ptitsyn’s possession and control,” the indictment says.
Other cybercrime groups, including 8Base, are known to use Phobos ransomware in their attacks.
“Evgeny Petitsyn allegedly extorted millions of dollars in ransom payments from thousands of victims and now faces justice in the United States thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of law enforcement agencies around the world — from the Republic of Korea to Japan to Europe and finally to the United States,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in her remarks. : “Baltimore, Maryland.”
Ptitsyn is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, multiple counts of intentionally causing harm to protected computers and extortion. If convicted, Ptitsyn faces decades in prison.
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