The Justice Department has actually jailed and charged a Russian nationwide for his supposed function in numerous LockBit ransomware attacks versus victims in the U.S. and around the globe.
According to a criminal grievance unsealed on Thursday, 20-year-old Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov is implicated of performing 5 cyberattacks in between August 2020 and March 2023, 4 of which released the well-known LockBit ransomware.
“Astamirov allegedly participated in a conspiracy with other members of the LockBit ransomware campaign to commit wire fraud and to intentionally damage protected computers and make ransom demands through the use and deployment of ransomware,” the Justice Department stated.
Astamirov, a resident of the Russian-managed Chechen Republic, presumably performed attacks on 2 U.S.-based companies, together with organisations headquartered in Japan, France and Kenya. According to the grievance, a minimum of among the victims paid $700,000. Another victim declined to pay, and Astamirov presumably submitted the business’s information to LockBit’s public server.
LockBit initially became a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation in late-2019 and has actually considering that been utilized in roughly 1,800 ransomware attacks versus victim systems in the United States and worldwide. In an advisory released today, U.S. cybersecurity authorities stated that understood LockBit attacks represented 16% of attacks on public entities, consisting of schools, city governments and police, in 2022.
Since January 2020, the LockBit group has actually been related to roughly $91 million in ransoms paid in the U.S., the advisory stated.
Astamirov, who lay and jailed in the U.S. after police traced a part of a victim’s ransom payment to a cryptocurrency address under Astamirov’s control, has actually been arraigned on charges of conspiracy to transfer ransom needs, devote wire scams, and deliberately damage safeguarded computer systems. If condemned, he might confront twenty years in jail for the wire scams charge and as much as 5 years in jail for the charge associated with destructive secured computer systems.
Astamirov is the 3rd LockBit affiliate the U.S. Justice Department has actually charged in the last 7 months. In November, authorities charged 33-year-old Mikhail Vasiliev – referred to as “one of the world’s most prolific ransomware operators” – for his supposed participation in the LockBit ransomware gang. Vasiliev is now in custody in Canada and waiting for extradition to the United States.
In May, the U.S. federal government likewise arraigned U.S. Mikhail Matveev, recognized online as “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin,” for presumably serving as a “central figure” in establishing and releasing the Hive, LockBit and Babuk ransomware variations.
Since it emerged in 2019, LockBit has actually declared numerous prominent victims worldwide in current months, consisting of the U.K. postal giant Royal Mail, the federal government of Costa Rica, and monetary software application company Ion Group. This week, LockBit likewise declared duty for a cyberattack on Indian pharmaceutical giant Granules India and released parts of the information it presumably took.
