Ransom Cartel Creator Gets 16 Years in Prison for Operating Ransomware-as-a-Service
Summary: A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, sentenced 40-year-old Belarusian national Maksim Silnikau to 16 years in prison on August 5 for creating and running Ransom Cartel, the ransomware-as-a-service operation he stood up in 2021. Between 2021 and 2023, Ransom Cartel conspirators attacked at least 18 companies, including firms in California, New York and Nebraska and others abroad, according to the Justice Department.
Bottom line: Silnikau built the business rather than most of the intrusions: the locking software, credentials bought from initial access brokers, and a hidden affiliate panel for monitoring attacks, negotiating with victims and splitting proceeds, with payments pushed through cryptocurrency mixers. A second federal prosecution in New Jersey is unresolved and the two men charged alongside him there remain at large, with the State Department offering up to $2.5 million for information leading to one of their arrests or convictions.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
- Topics
- Ransomware
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