US indicts LockBit ransomware ringleader, offers $10 million reward

Posted by
Check your BMI

A matrix of green binary code flows down in the background of a laptop computer with a green-hued image of the US Capitol building
Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
toonsbymoonlight

The Department of Justice has unsealed charges against a Russian national accused of developing and administrating LockBit ransomware. In a filing on Tuesday, the DOJ claims the 31-year-old Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev helped make LockBit one of “the most prolific and destructive ransomware group[s] in the world.”

Khoroshev has allegedly had involvement in LockBit since it first emerged in September 2019. Over the years, LockBit ransomware attacks have claimed over 2,500 victims in at least 120 countries, with Khoroshev and other co-conspirators allegedly collecting at least $500 million in ransom payments.

Image: UK National Crime Agency
US and UK authorities seized LockBit’s data leak site in February.

LockBit…

Continue reading…