US, UK & Australia Sanction Evil Corp Hackers

Uploaded on 2024-10-03 in FREE TO VIEW

The UK, US and Australia have announced sanctions against 16 people that are accuse of being part of the most wanted cyber crime gang in the world.

Russia-based Evil Corp, also known as Indrik Spider, is accused of stealing around $300m in almost a decade of hacking.

The group is also believed to have orchestrated espionage operations against NATO members on behalf of the Russian Intelligence Services.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) says it can now reveal the gang’s notorious leader, Maksim Yakubets, has been supported by his father Viktor Yakubets.

This information has been published as part of a large, international operation to disrupt Evil Corp and another notorious hacking group called LockBit.

“Known for their Mafia-style of operation, Evil Corp has waged a campaign of destructive cyber-attacks worldwide for over a decade,” says the UK Government.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said:

“I am making it my personal mission to target the Kremlin with the full arsenal of sanctions at our disposal.

“Putin has built a corrupt mafia state with himself at its centre. We must combat this at every turn, and today’s action is just the beginning.

“Today’s sanctions send a clear message to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate Russian cyber-attacks - whether from the state itself or from its cyber-criminal ecosystem.”

In 2019, Maksim Yakubets was sanctioned and a $5m bounty was put up for his arrest, along with another man called Igor Turashev.

Other Russian individuals, including Yakubets' brother Artem, were also named as part of the US sanctions and designations.

As well as the Yakubets family members, Maksim's father-in-law was also sanctioned for helping to protect and coordinate the group with his connections to the Russian security services.

Western authorities have now officially linked Eduard Benderskiy, a former high-ranking FSB official, to Evil Corp.

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