cyber chronicle, 12.07.2024, 11:30 AM
Ukrainian citizen Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov, 37, was sentenced in the US to 9 years in prison for participating in the distribution of two infamous malware, and the Federal Court in Nebraska also imposed a fine so that Penchukov will have to pay $73 million in restitution.
Penčukov pleaded guilty in February on charges related to the distribution of the banking malware Zeus in 2010, but also for stealing information with the IcedID malware, also known as BokBot.
Known in hacker circles as “Tank,” Penchukov was on the FBI’s most-wanted list for more than a decade before he was arrested in Switzerland in 2022 and extradited to the US in 2023.
His name first surfaced in a 2014 indictment filed against the JabberZeus group, which began distributing Zeus in 2009. He was one of the people who played a leading role in a group responsible for infecting thousands of computers and stealing tens of millions of dollars. The Zeus malware stole bank account passwords and other information that allowed cybercriminals to impersonate account owners and withdraw all the money from them.
The group used “mullahs” who received payments into their bank accounts and then transferred the stolen money to accounts controlled by Penchukov and his accomplices, including Maksim Jakubec i Yevgenij Bogachevfor which the US government is offering multi-million dollar rewards.
Prosecutors said Penchukov participated in attacks that used IcedID malware from November 2018 to February 2021. IcedID was used to steal information, including bank account credentials, but also to download and install other malware, including ransomware.
The prosecution recalled that one such attack paralyzed the University of Vermont Medical Center’s systems with ransomware, and in addition to huge financial losses estimated at $30 million, the attack caused this health facility to be unable to provide medical assistance to patients for more than two weeks. .
For many years, Penchukov avoided prosecution for cybercrime because of his political ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Photo: Solid Media | Pexels
Source: www.informacija.rs
