US offers $10 million bounty for Russian hacker – 05/16/2023 – Tech

The United States announced on Tuesday (16) a reward of US$ 10 million (R$ 49 million) for a Russian hacker suspected of being responsible for cyber attacks on Washington Police, schools and hospitals.

Mikhail Matveev is accused of having used hijacking programs (‘ransomware’) such as LockBit, Babuk and Hive to carry out extortions from Russia for at least US$ 200 million (R$ 982 million), according to the US Department of Justice.

“He had encrypted and taken hostage the data of numerous victims, in particular from hospitals, schools, associations and police” such as the one in Washington, declared the federal prosecutor of New Jersey, Philip Sellinger.

“Wazawaka”, “m1x” or “Boriselcin” were some of his fake names.

‘Ransomware’ access vulnerable computer systems to encrypt or steal data. The hackers then ask for payment under the threat of not decrypting this information or publishing it.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

If captured, Matveev could be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.