Extradited Russian Hacker Faces Charges Over Excel Malware Campaign That Infected Thousands
Summary: The U.S. Department of Justice charged Russian national Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev, 40, with using roughly 255 fake accounts on a freelance platform to send malware-laced Excel attachments to about 80,000 users in 2016 and 2017. Aktulaev, arrested in Cyprus in May 2025 and extradited on August 28, made his initial appearance in San Francisco federal court on August 31 on charges including wire fraud conspiracy, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
What you should know: The macro-laced attachments delivered TVRAT and DarkVNC to thousands of machines, about half of the victims in the U.S., and a shared document in the scheme's email account held e-commerce credentials and PII for hundreds of victims. Microsoft has blocked VBA macros by default since 2022, but the same freelance-platform lure is now used by North Korean and Sandworm-linked actors against developers and job candidates.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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