Russia and USA appears to have agreed to a prison exchange. USA gets several Western and Russian journalists arrested for various spy charges. Russia gets home... cybercriminals!
A thread /1
A thread /1
Who are these guys that Russia wants back so badly? Well, let's have look at the list:
Two of the men are harldy "cybercriminals". They were arrested for being involved in various schemes to import Western electronics to Russia. /2
Two of the men are harldy "cybercriminals". They were arrested for being involved in various schemes to import Western electronics to Russia. /2
https://x.com/wartracker4/status/1818873892921897271
Alexander Vinnik was arrested in 2017 for money laundering as CEO of a crypto exchange called BTC-E. BTC-E was later accused of handling money transfers for the GRU hackers known as “Fancy Bear” during the 2020 US election interference. /3
Vinnik has also been accused of being linked to the Locky ransomware group, presumably for money laundering. /4
justice.gov/opa/pr/alleged…
justice.gov/opa/pr/alleged…
Vladislav Klyshin was the founder and CEO of M-13, a Russian cybersecurity company. He was arrested for hacking companies and stealing confidential data used for insider trading, earning close to 100 million dollars. /5
Klyshin is also being named as co-conspirator to two GRU officers accused of being involved in the 2020 Russian election meddling.
/6justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/rus…
/6justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/rus…
Roman Seleznev. Seleznev is a carder and was arrested back in 2014 and sentenced to 27 years in prison for wire fraud and running a credit-card-theft operation. /7
Seleznev is also the son of Valery Seleznev, a member of Russia's Duma, that has been sanctioned since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Apparently having a son who is a known cybercriminal didn't hurt his father's political career. /8
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Sel…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Sel…
Vladimir Dunaev. Dunaev was arrested for being part of the TrickBot group. TrickBot was part of the Conti ransomware syndicate and used to deploy both Ryuk and Conti ransomware. In the Conti leaks it was also revealed that Conti would sell information to the FSB. /9
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, it was revealed that the TrickBot group had switched from ransomware to cyber espionage in Ukraine, presumably earning them a favor they can now cash in. /10
securityintelligence.com/x-force/trickb…
securityintelligence.com/x-force/trickb…
Vadim Krasikov is not a cybercriminal but an FSB hitman, known as the “Berlin Bicycle Assassin” after he murdered a Chechen dissident in 2019. /11
apnews.com/article/vadim-…
apnews.com/article/vadim-…
However, Krasikov has a curious link to cybercrime. He is linked to the FSB officer Edouard Bendersky, a senior officer in "Vympel", an FSB spec ops unit, who may have been his handler during the assassination. /12
meduza.io/en/feature/202…
meduza.io/en/feature/202…
Edouard Bendersky in turn happens to be the father-in-law of one of Russia's most notorious cybercriminals - Maksim Yakubets, the leader of Evil Corp. /13
rferl.org/a/in-lavish-we…
rferl.org/a/in-lavish-we…
Everywhere we look, the Russian government has links to organized cybercrime, and now the Russian government does it's best to help free Russian cybercriminals and get them home.
Do we need more proof that Russia is actviely enabling ransomware and other cybercrime? /16
Do we need more proof that Russia is actviely enabling ransomware and other cybercrime? /16
End Thread
@aejleslie, @patrikoksanen, @ImposeCost, @Jon__DiMaggio
@aejleslie, @patrikoksanen, @ImposeCost, @Jon__DiMaggio
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