Feds avert Russian man’s $1 million plot to infect Nevada company’s network

Enlarge (credit: Michael Coghlan)

A Russian national has been criminally charged for allegedly offering $1 million to a person in return for them infecting their employer's network with malware.

Federal prosecutors said that Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, met with the unnamed employee on multiple occasions to entice them to install malware that would exfiltrate data from the unidentified Nevada-based company. The group behind the attack allegedly would then demand $4 million in return for the information.

A criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday said that the malware would be custom developed to propagate through the company's network. For it to work, prosecutors alleged, the group said it needed the employee to provide information about the employer's network authorizations and network procedures. Kriuchkov said the malware could be transmitted either by inserting a USB drive into a company computer or clicking on an email attachment containing malware, Tuesday's criminal complaint said.

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