Cybercrime: Arrests in Ukraine, Russia plans cybersecurity office
The handcuffs clicked for a ransomware perpetrator and the operator of a pro-Russian bot farm. Russia wants a cyber security authority.
Ukrainian cyber police searched several apartments looking for evidence of cybercrime
(Image: Cyberpolice Ukraine)
The Ukrainian cyber police and domestic intelligence service have arrested potential cyber criminals suspected of being in the service of Russian clients. The suspects were apparently part of the criminal ecosystem by programming ransomware components, registering masses of Ukrainian phone numbers and spreading phishing messages and disinformation from there.
In the northern Ukrainian administrative region of Zhytomyr, the domestic intelligence service SBU (Служба безпеки України, Security Service of Ukraine) a suspect who spread phishing messages, malware and pro-Kremlin comments on social media from her home. The woman had registered over 600 mobile phone numbers of Ukrainian operators and Telegram accounts. She is now facing charges of unauthorized interference with the operation of communication systems.
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The security service also arrested a suspected cybercrime service provider in Dnipro, Ukraine's fourth-largest city. The man is said to have created almost 15,000 accounts in various messengers and social networks and offered them on the darknet. As the Ukrainian secret service claims to have discovered, Russian services were the suspect's main customers. The authorities are now accusing him of criminal interference with the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.
(Image: Cyberpolice Ukraine)
Alleged supplier for Conti and Lockbit
In the capital Kyiv, investigators from the Ukrainian cyber police found a suspected criminal service provider. He was involved in the LockBit and Conti ransomware gangs as a developer of cryptors, the investigators told heise online. The search and arrest operation was initiated by the Dutch police and was apparently part of "Operation Endgame" against criminal computer experts.
It is not clear from the information provided by the investigators whether the suspects knew each other. However, it is clear that the authorities worked together. The cyber police and SBU supported each other; the Ukrainian national police were involved in all three cases.
Ukraine has been notable for its increased investigative activities and successes against digital gangsters since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. Last November, for example, investigators arrested five members of a ransomware gang and searched 30 properties.
Russia is probably planning a cybersecurity authority
According to a report in Ria Novosti, Russia, which is at war with Ukraine not only in conventional ways but also in the digital space, is now planning to set up a cybersecurity authority. As the newspaper writes, citing a source from the cybersecurity sector, the idea is being discussed with representatives from the business community. The director of Sberbank had already called for such an agency recently.
Friction and communication problems often occur between the authorities currently responsible for cybersecurity, including FSTEC (Federal Service for Technical and Export Control), the FSB domestic intelligence service, the Ministry of Digital Development and the Russian Central Bank. A central office could resolve these difficulties.
(cku)
