Russian news agency Tass reported over the weekend that the “purported founder” of a notorious cybercrime group known as Infraud Organisation has been arrested
In February 2018, when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) unleashed indictments against 36 defendants alleged to be part of what the DOJ described at the time as:
[A] cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband.
As a side-effect of the American indictment, 13 people were arrested in seven different countries: Australia, France, Italy, Kosovo, Serbia, the UK and the US.
The DOJ claimed to have evidence at the time that Infraud Org, operating under the unrepentant motto In Fraud We Trust, was responsible for more than $500 million in actual losses, and more than $2 billion in what law enforcement referred to as “intended losses”.
The 36 defendants went by an eclectic range of online nicknames, including Best4Best, Goldenshop, Guapo1988, Moneymafia, Moviestar, Renegade11, Secureroot, Skizo, Validshop and Zo0mer.
One of those indicted back in 2018 was a certain Andrey Sergeevich Novak, also known as Unicc, also known as Faaxxx, also known as Faxtrod.
Novak, claims this weekend’s Tass report, which quotes an “informed source”, is one of four suspects now under arrest in Russia.
He was allegedly arrested two months ago – the report implies that he’s still in custody – along with three other members of the group whom Tass describe as “detained under house arrest”. (We’re assuming that the US equivalent would be that Novak didn’t make bail, while the other three did.)
None of the latter three were listed by name in the 2018 US indictment, although six of the 36 defendants were entered simply as John Doe, US jargon for “name unknown”.
“The investigation continues,” states Tass, “to establish the other members of the international hacking group.”
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