after law enforcement traced a portion of a victim’s ransom payment to a cryptocurrency address under Astamirov’s control, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to transmit ransom demands, commit wire fraud, and intentionally damage protected computers. If found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge and up to five years in prison for the charge related to damaging protected computers.From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Related topics: Computers, History page page 1 / peɪdʒ / Since January 2020, the LockBit group has been associated with approximately $91 million in ransoms paid in the U.S., the advisory said.Īstamirov, who was located and arrested in the U.S.
cybersecurity officials said that known LockBit attacks accounted for 16% of attacks on public entities, including schools, local governments and law enforcement agencies, in 2022. LockBit first emerged as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation in late-2019 and has since been used in approximately 1,800 ransomware attacks against victim systems in the United States and worldwide. Another victim refused to pay, and Astamirov allegedly uploaded the company’s data to LockBit’s public server. According to the complaint, at least one of the victims paid $700,000. “Astamirov allegedly participated in a conspiracy with other members of the LockBit ransomware campaign to commit wire fraud and to intentionally damage protected computers and make ransom demands through the use and deployment of ransomware,” the Justice Department said.Īstamirov, a citizen of the Russian-controlled Chechen Republic, allegedly carried out attacks on two U.S.-based organizations, along with organisations headquartered in Japan, France and Kenya. and around the world.Īccording to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, 20-year-old Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov is accused of carrying out five cyberattacks between August 2020 and March 2023, four of which deployed the notorious LockBit ransomware. The Justice Department has arrested and charged a Russian national for his alleged role in multiple LockBit ransomware attacks against victims in the U.S.
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