Source: AFP
A Russian man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for his role in the development of the Trickbot malware used to extort businesses including hospitals during the Covid pandemic, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
Vladimir Dunaev, 40, who was extradited from South Korea to the United States in 2021, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to commit computer fraud and identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.
Dunaev, originally from Amur Oblast, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by a Midwestern Ohio judge on Wednesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Dunaev was among nine Russians, some of whom are said to have links to Russian intelligence services, who were charged in the United States with involvement in Trickbot, which was taken down in 2022.
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According to the Department of Justice, Dunaev provided “specialized services and technical capabilities in furtherance of the Trickbot program.”
“Dunaev developed malicious ransomware and deployed it to attack American hospitals, schools and businesses,” said US Attorney Rebecca Lutzko.
“He and his co-defendants caused incalculable disruption and financial damage by maliciously infecting millions of computers around the world.”
According to the indictments, the Trickbot group developed malware and a related ransomware program called Conti to attack hundreds of targets in the United States and more than 30 other countries since 2016.
The malware was also used to steal bank account credentials and passwords from victims’ computers in order to siphon money from the accounts.
According to Britain’s National Crime Agency, the operation grossed at least $180 million worldwide.
The group specifically targeted hospitals and healthcare services during the 2020-2021 coronavirus pandemic, authorities said.
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They would break into a computer system and encrypt all data, demanding hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, paid in cryptocurrency, to free the systems.
In one attack, the group used ransomware against three Minnesota medical facilities, disrupting their computer networks and phones and causing ambulances to be diverted, US officials said.
In July 2020, an attack hit a local government in a city in Tennessee, shutting down local emergency medical services and the police department.
A virtual hack in May 2021 at a California hospital network, Scripps Health, locked down the computers of about 24 acute care and outpatient facilities.
Another Trickbot member, Alla Witte, a Latvian national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer fraud in June after her extradition from Suriname, where she helped write code for Trickbot and launder proceeds from the ransomware.
Witte was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
Source: AFP