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A Russian individual has been indicted by US officials for his purported involvement in several ransomware operations that reportedly earned him and other perpetrators nearly $200 million, a significant portion of which was acquired through cryptocurrency.
Among the targets of these ransomware incidents were hospitals, educational institutions, and law enforcement agencies.
$200 Million in Ransomware Payments
The accused – Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev – was affiliated with three ransomware groups: Lockbit, Babuk, and Hive. Together, they have amassed nearly $200 million from victims after demanding over $400 million, according to data from the Department of Justice.
The Department highlighted that Matveev was recognized online by various pseudonyms, including “Wazawaka,” “m1x,” “Boriselcin,” and “Uhodiransomwa.”
“These international crimes necessitate a coordinated response,” stated Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in the DOJ’s announcement. “We will persist in enforcing consequences on the most severe offenders in the cybercrime landscape.”
Some of Matveev’s alleged offenses involved assisting in the deployment of Babuk ransomware against the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. in April 2021, as well as a nonprofit behavioral healthcare organization in New Jersey in May 2022.
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In the first instance, the perpetrator and his accomplices threatened to make sensitive information public unless payments were received. Babuk ransomware operators have conducted at least 65 attacks globally since December 2020, demanding $49 million in ransoms and securing at least $13 million.
In January 2022, cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs reported that Matveev had asserted a connection with the Darkside ransomware groups, as noted by Bloomberg. Darkside was behind a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline in 2021, which resulted in the attackers receiving 63.7 BTC in coerced payments.
Crypto’s Role in Ransomware
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have gained traction as preferred methods for executing ransomware attacks since 2021. Unlike conventional bank transactions, hackers can maintain anonymity when demanding payments in Bitcoin, and such transactions cannot be reversed or retrieved by financial institutions or governments.
As per Chainalysis, ransomware earnings significantly declined in 2022 to $456.8 million, down from $765.6 million in 2021. Analysts attributed this reduction to a lower willingness among victims to pay ransoms—particularly as sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department have made such payments more perilous.
In January, the FBI declared that it had dismantled the HIVE ransomware network, which had participants across North America and Europe.
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