Unmasking of LockBitSupp - Dmitry Khoroshev
looorg writes:
"A leader of what was once the world's most harmful cyber crime group has been unmasked and sanctioned by the UK, US and Australia, following a National Crime Agency-led international disruption campaign."
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/lockbit-leader-unmasked-and-sanctioned
[...] The sanctions against Russian national Dmitry Khoroshev, the administrator and developer of the LockBit ransomware group, are being announced today by the FCDO alongside the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.
Khoroshev, AKA LockBitSupp, who thrived on anonymity and offered a $10 million reward to anyone who could reveal his identity, will now be subject to a series of asset freezes and travel bans.
US partners have also unsealed an indictment against him and are offering a reward of up to $10m for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.
The actions targeting Khoroshev form part of an extensive and ongoing investigation into the LockBit group by the NCA, FBI, and international partners who form the Operation Cronos taskforce.
LockBit provided ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) to a global network of hackers or 'affiliates', supplying them with the tools and infrastructure to carry out attacks.
In February the NCA announced that it had infiltrated the group's network and taken control of its services, including its leak site on the dark web, which compromised the entire criminal enterprise.
The true impact of LockBit's criminality was previously unknown, but data obtained from their systems showed that between June 2022 and February 2024, more than 7,000 attacks were built using their services. The top five countries hit were the US, UK, France, Germany and China.
See also:
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/05/u-s-charges-russian-man-as-boss-of-lockbit-ransomware-group/
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/07/dmitry-khoroshev-named-as-alleged-leader-of-ransomware-gang-lockbit
- https://thehackernews.com/2024/05/russian-hacker-dmitry-khoroshev.html
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