USA & UK target Russian hacking group responsible for Rs 5600 crore extortion

The US and UK, have declared their intention to directly confront the Russian hacking group responsible for Rs 5600 Crore extortion. They have recently disclosed the identity of the group leader, Dmitry Khoroshev. The accused is the mastermind of the World's largest Ransomware scheme. A reward with a bounty of Rs 83 crore has been announced for the accused.

US & UK Target Russian Group Behind Rs 5600 Crore Extortion

The accused digitally looted the money from targets like Boeing and the United Kingdom's Royal Mail service. Khoroshev is involved in over 7,000 cyber attacks targeting 25,000 victims worldwide.

US Department of Justice revealed that, Khoroshev the mastermind gets a 20% cut in each Ransom equaling a hefty sum of Rs1,119 crore. The National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK has claimed that the money was received over 18 months.

Khoroshev is the creator of Lockbit a Ransomware service model where these cyberattack takes place and the accused benefits from the ransom payment made by the victims. The Lockbit ransomware infects the whole system allowing the attacker to gain access to all the sensitive information. After the system is infected it leaves ransom notes instructing about the payment.

Their primary targets are enterprises and organizations possessing some sensitive and important information. Lockbit takes the victim to the dark web for the ransom payment. The attacker communicates with the victim through an end-to-end encrypted messaging app. Lockbit has been operating since 2019.

In February, the NCA, FBI and Europol came together to conduct a crackdown on Lockbit. the operation revealed that the Lockbit services are responsible for more than 7,000 attacks between June 2022 to February 2024 primarily targeting the US, UK, France, Germany and China.

However, Lockbit made a quick comeback within 3 days of the crackdown reappearing on the dark web. The website started to upload sensitive information and data about various victims such as the FBI.

On 5th May, the website showed a message that read “We know who he is. We know where he lives. We know how much he is worth. LockBitSupp has engaged with Law Enforcement :),” suggesting that it was again captured by the enforcement agency.

In contrast, a LockBit administrative staff (VX-Underground) claimed that the Enforcement department was lying  “I don’t understand why they’re putting on this little show. They’re clearly upset, we continue to work,” the staff said.

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