Russian Man Charged for $200 Million in Ransomware Crimes Involving Crypto

US authorities have indicted a Russian man for his alleged connection to multiple ransomware that netted him and other attackers nearly $200 million — most of which came through encryption.

Victims of these ransomware attacks include hospitals, schools and police stations.

$200 million in ransomware payments

The perpetrator – Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev – was part of three ransomware gangs: Lockbit, Babuk and Hive. Collectively, they took nearly $200 million from the victims after claiming more than $400 million in money, according to figures from Ministry of Justice.

Management noted that Matiev was known online by multiple aliases, including “Wazawaka”, “M1X”, “Boresylcin” and “Ouderansomua”.

Said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. “We will not relent in imposing consequences on the most egregious actors in the cybercrime ecosystem.”

Some of Mateev’s alleged offenses included helping to spread the Babuk ransomware against the D.C. Police Department in Washington, D.C. in April 2021, as well as a nonprofit behavioral healthcare organization in New Jersey in May 2022.

In the first case, the criminal and his co-conspirators threatened to reveal sensitive material to the public unless payments were made. Babuk ransomware representatives have carried out at least 65 attacks worldwide since December 2020, demanded $49 million in payments, and received at least $13 million.

In January 2022, cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs reported that Matiev claimed affiliation with Darkseid ransomware groups, according to bloomberg. Darkside was responsible for a ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline in 2021, which netted the attackers 63.7 BTC in forced payments.

The role of cryptography in ransomware

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have become popular tools to carry out ransomware attacks since 2021. Unlike traditional bank transfers, hackers can easily remain anonymous when requesting payments in bitcoins, and these payments cannot be reversed or refunded by the bank or government.

According to Chainalysis, ransomware revenue He falls It fell dramatically in 2022 to $456.8 million, compared to $765.6 million in 2021. Experts attributed the decline to victims’ reduced willingness to pay a ransom — especially since sanctions rules imposed on such payments by the US Treasury made their implementation riskier.

In January, the FBI announce It removed the HIVE ransomware network, which had members across North America and Europe.