$5 million placed bounty on Russian hackers responsible for Dridex banking malware
The UK's National Crime Agency, together with the USA's Department of Justice and Department of State, has named two Russian hackers it believes developed and distributed the Dridex banking trojan - and the American Departments have slapped a record bounty on their heads.
Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev stole more than $100 million using the malware, which is also known as Bugat and Cridex, over a 10-year period, including more than £20 million from UK bank accounts. They distributed it through massive email campaigns, targeting companies around the world.
The $5 million bounty is for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Yakubets. It is, to-date, the largest reward the State Department - in partnership with the FBI - has ever offered. A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh returned a 10-count indictment, unsealed today, against Yakubets and Turashev for their role in the Dridex campaign. It charges them with conspiracy, computer hacking, wire fraud and bank fraud. Another complaint, unsealed the same day in Lincoln, charged Yakubets with conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with the ‘Zeus' malware.
