The United Kingdom, the United States and Australia have sanctioned and unmasked a senior Russian leader of the notorious LockBit cybercrime gang, the British government said on Tuesday.
Dmitry Khoroshev will have assets frozen and face travel bans after being identified as one of the leaders of LockBit, a ransomware group — malicious software that encrypts data — that digitally extorted more than US$1 billion (R$5 billion) from victims around the world, according to authorities.
“These sanctions are extremely significant and show that there is no hiding place for cybercriminals like Dmitry Khoroshev, who wreaks havoc across the world,” said Graeme Biggar, director general of the Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA). United.
“He was sure he could remain anonymous, but he was wrong,” he added.
LockBit was first targeted by the NCA, the US Department of Justice, the FBI and Europol — US and European investigative agencies — in February.
In this case, an unprecedented operation was carried out, in which the gang's darkweb site was hijacked by the police and used to leak internal information about the group and the people behind it.
“By sanctioning one of LockBit's leaders, we are taking direct action against those who continue to threaten global security, while also exposing malicious cybercriminal activity emanating from Russia,” said British Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne- Marie Trevelyan, in a statement.
Lockbit and its affiliates make money by coercing their targets into paying ransom to decrypt or unlock data with a digital key. The gang's digital extortion tactics have been used against some of the world's largest organizations.
Criminal groups
Affiliates are like-minded criminal groups that LockBit recruits to carry out attacks using these tactics and tools.
These groups carry out the attacks and provide LockBit with a portion of the ransom, which is often demanded in the form of cryptocurrency, making it difficult to track.
In February, the US announced that it had charged two Russian citizens with deploying LockBit ransomware against companies and groups around the world. Both men were also sanctioned by the US Treasury.
Before it was seized by authorities, the Lockbit website displayed an ever-expanding gallery of victim organizations, updated almost daily.
Next to their names were digital clocks that showed the number of days remaining before the deadline given to each organization to make the ransom payment.
This Tuesday, international law enforcement agencies once again used this platform against the gang itself, to unmask Khoroshev. They published a wanted poster promising a reward of US$10 million (R$50 million) for information leading to Khoroshev's arrest.
According to a 26-count US indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Khoroshev received at least US$100 million (R$500 million) in Bitcoin payments for LockBit activity.
Reuters was unable to find contact information for Khoroshev or his lawyer.
Source: CNN Brasil
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