The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is indicting three Russian nationals and two companies for their roles in a cybercrime operation that drained tens of millions of dollars from victims.
The DOJ says it charged Alexander Alexandrovich Volosovik, Kirill Andreevich Zatolokin, Yulia Vladimirovna Pankova, Medialand LLC and ML.Cloud LLC with conspiracy to commit and aid and abet computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Federal prosecutors say the two Russia-based companies provided online infrastructure that helped cybercriminals carry out malware, ransomware and other computer-based attacks.
According to the indictment, Medialand LLC, owned by Volosovik, and ML.Cloud, owned at the time by Pankova, were based in St. Petersburg, Russia, and offered computer servers and other internet services.
Authorities say Medialand also operated infrastructure in several other countries, including China, Finland, the Netherlands and the United States.
Prosecutors allege the companies offered “bulletproof hosting” services, a type of infrastructure designed to help clients commit cybercrimes while making it harder for law enforcement to detect and disrupt their activity.
The indictment says these types of businesses knowingly market or lease their services to cybercriminals.
Authorities allege Volosovik promoted the companies’ services on criminal forums, highlighting features that would be useful to people engaged in cybercrime.
Prosecutors allege Medialand and ML.Cloud gave criminal clients the tools they needed to infect victims’ computers with malware and ransomware, then demand payments in money or cryptocurrency.
The companies also allegedly supported criminal marketplaces, helped register fraudulent domains and provided infrastructure used in phishing and brute-force attacks.
According to the indictment, criminal groups using Medialand and ML.Cloud targeted 42 victims across 21 US states.
Says Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division,
“From their overseas haven, these defendants ran the criminal infrastructure that powered attacks on critical institutions across our nation. Their actions put the American public at risk. We will continue to dismantle these networks and protect our critical infrastructure from cybercriminals at home and abroad.”
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