A 22-year-old Ukrainian national who was reportedly a member of the famous REvil ransomware group has been arrested. Should the hacker be found guilty and charged, he could face up to 100 years in prison.
A Ukrainian Hacker Will be Facing 100 Years in Prison
According to the story by TechCrunch, federal authorities are saying that an alleged member of the famous REvil ransomware group was responsible for the recent Kaseya hack. The attack encrypted thousands of different customers' networks.
After a long process, the 22-year-old Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi was arrested in Poland on October 8 and was just extradited to Texas in order to face charges from the United States. Should Vasinskyi be convicted, he will be facing 100 years in prison.
Vasinskyi was Part of the REvil Ransomware Gang
Vasinskyi was just extradited and arraigned in a federal court in Dallas to directly face accusations of fraud and hacking. According to the indictment filed back in August, this was just recently unsealed.
For quite a long time, the REvil gang was known as one of the most prolific ransomware groups. In addition, the Russian-speaking "ransomware-as-a-service operation is allowing affiliates to rent certain access to their infrastructure as long as they get a share of the profits.
Notable REvil Ransomware Gang Hacks
Notable attacks that happened since its emergence was a food product delay after JBS, a meat processing plant, was attacked and private information was leaked. Other hacks include the hack on Acer, a popular computer maker, and Invenergy, an energy giant.
However, the hack that garnered the most attention was the Kaseya attack. Kaseya is an IT and networking monitoring software company with thousands of its customers' networks infected with ransomware.
US Government Launched a $10 Million Bounty
A massive $10 million bounty was launched by the US government for information that could help bring these hackers to justice. Just a few weeks after the attack on Kaseya, the company was able to get decryption keys for its customers, allowing them to bypass millions of dollars worth of ransomware payments and unlock their systems.
The Washington Post said the FBI could obtain the key in secret and plan a takedown that did not happen. The hackers soon vanished from the internet for a short span of time after being blamed for the attack on Kaseya.
The US government, in October, said that it was working with a multinational effort in order to force the gang to go offline. The group started to dismantle, and millions in crypto and cash were seized after Russian law enforcement was arrested in Romania.
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Written by Urian B.
