The two Russian citizens named Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev were charged by the Department of Justice with involvement in the distribution of the Dridex banking Trojan
The two Russian citizens named Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev were charged by the Department of Justice with involvement in the distribution of the Dridex banking Trojan.
Maksim Yakubets is charged in relation to two separate International computer hacking and bank fraud schemes, since May 2009 to present. Igor Turashev was indicted for the ‘Bugat’ malware conspiracy, including system administration, management of internal control panels.
The state department announced a reward of up to $5 million, for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Yakubets. This is the largest reward offer for a cybercriminal to date.
Yakubets
Yakubets was the leader of the group of conspirators involved with the Bugat malware.
- The NCA claims that Yakubets employed dozens of people to run the various Evil Corp operations, often from the basements of Moscow cafes.
- If Yakubets ever leaves the safety of Russia he will be arrested and extradited to the U.S.
“Prior to serving in this leadership role for Evil Corp, Yakubets was also directly associated with Evgeniy Bogachev, a previously designated Russian cybercriminal responsible for the distribution of the Zeus, Jabber Zeus and GameOver Zeus malware schemes,” the U.S Treasury Department added.
‘Dridex’ the main creation of Yakubets
The main creation of Yakubets was Dridex, first spotted in 2011, targeted individuals and companies in Western Pennsylvania and across the globe. Initially, the malware was named as “cridex,” later on as the individuals behind improved the malware and added functionality it was known as “Dridex” or Bugat.
Bugat is specially designed to defeat antivirus and other protective measures employed by victims.
“Bugat malware was allegedly designed to automate the theft of confidential personal and financial information, such as online banking credentials, and facilitated the theft of confidential personal and financial information by a number of methods. For example, the indictment alleges that the Bugat malware allowed computer intruders to hijack a computer session and present a fake online banking webpage to trick a user into entering personal and financial information,” a press release published by DoJ.
Evil Corp
Evil Corp is the world’s most harmful cybercrime group. Evil Corp targeted the U.K for a decade by deceiving and stole money from the bank accounts of public and business members.
“Evil Corp has used the Dridex malware to infect computers and harvest login credentials from hundreds of banks and financial institutions in over 40 countries, causing more than $100 million in theft,” the U.S Treasury Department said.
“This malicious software has caused millions of dollars of damage to the U.S and international financial institutions and their customers,” Reads the press release.
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