Russian Group Blamed For Ransomware Barrage Against Major U.S. Companies

A Russian hacker group the United States has in the past linked to Russian intelligence prepared a "string" of malware attacks on dozens of U.S. companies by targeting work-at-home employees during the pandemic, a network monitor says.

The Symantec Corporation said on June 25 that the attackers were trying to deploy "WastedLocker ransomware" in at least 31 firms that could allow them to cripple IT systems and demand multimillion-dollar payoffs to avert catastrophe.

The Russians were "going after the biggest American firms, and only American firms," according to Symantec's technical director, and the actual number of targets could be much higher.

Symantec, a corporate- and government-network-monitoring firm, attributed the dangerous software to Evil Corp, a "notorious" cybercrime outfit whose leaders are thought to include two Russian nationals.

Those Russian suspects, Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev, were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department in December 2019 for allegedly trying to steal millions of dollars in more than 40 countries through malware.

U.S. officials have offered a $5 million reward for tips leading to their capture.

The U.S. Treasury Department claimed in a December sanctions notice that Evil Corp leaders had worked for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and conducted cybercrime "on an almost unimaginable scale."

Russian authorities have protected them from extradition, it added.

U.S. officials have increased their level of alert recently amid leaked fears by law enforcement that ransomware attacks might be used to penetrate and compromise election infrastructure ahead of November's elections in the United States.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-group-blamed-for-ransomware-barrage-against-major-us-companies/30692910.html