A member of the infamous Ryuk ransomware operation who specialised in gaining preliminary entry to company networks has been extradited to the USA.
The suspect is a 33-year-old overseas man who was arrested in April 2025 in his residence in Kyiv on the request of the FBI. He was extradited to the USA yesterday, June 18.
In 2023, the Ukrainian cyber police, the Nationwide Police, and worldwide regulation enforcement companions started investigating a ransomware operation whose members carried out assaults on corporations in France, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA.
This operation led to the identification, seizure of units, and arrest of a number of cybercriminals residing in Ukraine for his or her involvement within the LockerGoga, MegaCortex, Hive, and Dharma ransomware households.
In an announcement, Ukraine’s Nationwide Police says the investigation additionally allowed them to establish a Ryuk ransomware member who specialised in getting access to company networks after which handing it off to different members to steal information and deploy the ransomware.
“Via the evaluation of the data obtained because of the investigative actions, it was doable to moreover establish a 33-year-old member of the group who was engaged in looking for vulnerabilities within the company networks of the sufferer corporations,” reads the announcement.
“The info obtained by the hacker was utilized by his accomplices to plan and perform cyberattacks.”
Whereas the title of the 33-year-old man is presently unknown, Ukraine says that the suspect was beforehand positioned on a global wished record by the FBI and was charged with quite a few crimes by the USA.
The Ryuk ransomware gang was energetic between 2018 and the center of 2020, when it was liable for quite a few assaults on organizations throughout virtually all sectors, together with healthcare through the Covid pandemic.
In 2020, the ransomware gang rebranded because the Conti ransomware operation, which grew to become some of the energetic gangs on the time.
In 2022, the Conti ransomware gang shut down, splintering into quite a few teams, with some nonetheless energetic immediately.
Researchers beforehand tracked ransom funds to the cybercrime operation and estimate that Ryuk earned $150 million whereas energetic.
BleepingComputer contacted the Division of Justice with questions concerning the extradition and can replace the story if we obtain a response.
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