Most wanted cybercriminal by the FBI is also responsible for spying on the US government
One of the most notorious cybercriminal who uses the alias Slavik is also linked with the Russian espionage of the US government agencies. Slavik is one of the ‘Most Wanted’ cybercriminal by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In the summer last year, Slavik, whose real name is Evgeniy Bogachev was linked with infecting thousands of computers around the world with his botnet ‘Gameover Zeus’. The cyber gang that Slavik operated siphoned of millions of dollars from around the world through several cybercrime attacks using the botnet created by Slavik.
This included theft of over US$ 100 million from several banks from around the world and US$ 27 million in ransom. The gang used several methods such as the phishing attacks, online extortion of money, various types of online scams, fraudulent money making scheme and other such methods to steal the bank account details of thousands of people. They also infected computers of over 250,000 people around the world and demanded ransom to be paid for releasing control over their computers. This is how they collected over US$ 27 million in ransom. This malware was termed as the Cryptolocker Ransomware.
The network was eventually brought down in June 2014 after FBI and the United States Justice Department partnered with several law enforcement agencies from several nations in a bid to bring down this notorious network of cybercriminals and hunt down their kingpin Evgeniy Bogachev alias Slavik. Once the cryptolocker of Slavik was shut down and further investigations were conducted, it was identified that Slavik and his gang as well as his clients were hunting for information about government agencies of several countries including US.
It is believed that Slavik was doing this on the behest of the Russian government. A bounty of US$ 3 million has been announced on information that will lead to the arrest of Slavik.
