In the high-profile business of the international hacker group Lockbit, new details have emerged. Two Russian citizens were indicted in the American court for their involvement in a large-scale extortion scheme using the malicious Lockbit ransomware.
The individuals in question are 21-year-old Ruslan Astamirov from the Chechen Republic and 34-year-old Mikhail Vasiliev, who holds dual citizenship of Russia and Canada. Astamirov was apprehended in May 2023 in Arizona, while Vasiliev, who was already under investigation in Canada, was extradited to the United States last month after spending nearly four years in prison.
According to the US Department of Justice, the hackers followed a specific modus operandi: they targeted vulnerable computer systems, gained unauthorized access, deployed the Lockbit ransomware to steal and encrypt data. Subsequently, they demanded a ransom from their victims in exchange for decrypting and deleting the stolen information.
Since its inception at the end of 2019, Lockbit has targeted over 2500 organizations globally, extorting at least $500 million in ransom payments. The total damage caused by their actions is estimated to be in the billions.
Astamirov, known online by the aliases Betterpay, Offtitan, and Eastfarmer, confessed to using Lockbit against a minimum of 12 victims between 2020 and 2023. He amassed $1.9 million in ransom payments from victims in the USA, Japan, France, Scotland, and Kenya. As part of a plea deal, Astamirov agreed to surrender $350,000 in cryptocurrency obtained from one of the victims to the authorities. He faces a potential sentence of up to 25 years in prison. Astamirov’s trial is slated for January 8, 2025.
Vasiliev, operating under the pseudonyms Ghostrider, Free, Digitalocean90, Digitalocean99, DigitalWaters99, and Newwave110, targeted at least 12 organizations, including companies in New Jersey, Michigan, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Among his victims were an educational institution in England and a school in Switzerland. The collective financial impact of his actions is estimated