Over 20,000 Hacks Worldwide: International Hacker Group Detained in Kharkiv
Hackers attacked servers and sold access to them.
The Cyber Police of Kharkiv region announced the detention of 3 Ukrainians and 1 foreigner who hacked more than 20,000 servers around the world.
«The criminal group operated since 2014, — law enforcement officers said. — Its members carried out brute force attacks on private companies and individuals. To carry out the attacks, they used specialized software that exploited vulnerabilities in servers running Windows. Some of the servers they also used for their own purposes: to create botnets for mining, DDoS attacks, to set up software command centers for "stealer" type viruses, and to turn them into tools for carrying out brute force attacks on new network nodes».
According to police, the detained individuals also sold some of the hacked servers to other hackers, who, using the information obtained, engaged in extortion under the pretext of data encryption, withdrew money from bank cards, and mined cryptocurrency.
In this way, the group, based in Ukraine, interfered with the computer networks of citizens of Ukraine, Russia, the US, France, China, Bulgaria, India, Brazil, Malaysia and the countries of Northern Europe. More than 20,000 servers worldwide were affected.
Police said all those detained were well-known participants of hacker forums. They communicated through messengers and received their illicit income into cryptocurrency and electronic wallets. Law enforcement officers found almost $80,000 in several of these wallets.
Police also seized computer equipment, additional storage media, mobile phones, bank cards used to commit the crimes, and draft notes from the detainees.
Criminal proceedings have been opened under Part 2 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — unauthorized interference with the operation of electronic computing machines (computers), automated systems, computer networks or telecommunication networks. One of the group's members has already been served with a notice of suspicion. Investigators are also preparing an international legal request concerning the recording of digital traces of the crimes outside Ukraine, documenting the criminal role, and prosecuting a foreigner involved in the criminal group.
Earlier, Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council stated that it considers the field of cybersecurity one of the most important priorities of its activity, and cyberweapons the main weapon of the next decade.
Since the end of August 2019, the Security Service of Ukraine has opened at least 124 criminal proceedings related to cyber threats.
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