Russia (bbabo.net), - The FSB, in cooperation with the Investigation Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad and Lipetsk regions, conducted a special operation against a group of hackers known as "REvil".
As the correspondent was told at the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of Russia, the appeal of the competent US authorities served as the basis for the search activities.
American colleagues reported to the FSB information about the leader of the criminal community, as well as his involvement in the introduction of viruses into the websites of foreign high-tech companies and further extortion of money for the deactivation of viruses.
The FSB officers managed not only to document the criminal activities of hackers, but also to establish the full composition of the criminal community "REvil". As it turned out, the members of the group were not only engaged in cyber fraud against large companies, they also stole money from the bank accounts of foreign citizens. The stolen money was either cashed out or used to buy expensive goods on the Internet.
The operational video footage shows the detention of hackers, as well as a huge amount of cash in their apartments. Judging by the video, in order not to frighten off hackers, FSB officers entered some apartments under the guise of housing and communal services workers.
According to the FSB DSP, as a result of searches in 25 apartments that were rented and in which 14 members of the organized criminal group lived, 426 million rubles were seized, including in cryptocurrency, 600 thousand US dollars, 500 thousand euros. Computer equipment, crypto wallets used to commit crimes, 20 premium cars purchased with stolen money were also seized.
The detainees were charged under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the illegal circulation of means of payment. "As emphasized in the special service, as a result of the joint actions of the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the organized criminal community ceased to exist. In addition, the information infrastructure used by cybercriminals was neutralized. The FSB also informed representatives of the competent US authorities about the results of the operation.
Today, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow received a petition from the investigation for a measure of restraint for one of the detained hackers. As the press service of the court told the correspondent, the investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asks to select a measure of restraint in the form of detention in a pre-trial detention center for two months in relation to the suspect Roman Muromsky.
According to media reports, the REvil hacker group was able to earn $100 million in buyouts from large companies in 2020 alone. Their virus first penetrated the company's network, after which the hackers downloaded particularly valuable data, after which the virus completely removed them from the attacked network. In some cases, hackers demanded money for a decryptor that would return lost data. In others, companies paid to keep their information from becoming available to competitors and the general public. Attacks last year included serious computer companies such as Acer and Quanta Computer, which works in the interests of Apple. In this case, the amount of the required ransom could be several million dollars.
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