T“We are taking this action because of Matvive’s role in stealing data from law enforcement, businesses, and infrastructure around the world,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement Tuesday.
In addition to the $10 million reward, the Department of Justice filed two indictments against Martveyev in the District Court of Columbia and another in the District of New Jersey, while the Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions against the Russian, Evie reported.
According to US justice, Matveev, known online as Wazawaka, will have collected $200 million (about 184 million euros) in ransoms paid by victims of digital data theft since 2020.
From his home in Russia, Matveev has led three data theft campaigns — LockBit, Babuk, and Hive — against nearly 3,000 victims, including hospitals and government agencies.
All cyberattacks followed the same “modus operandi”: “hackers” were identified and gained illegal access to computer systems, broke into or purchased stolen access credentials, deployed “malware” to steal data and negotiated a ransom with the victim.
US authorities accused Matveyev before the court of conspiracy to break into protected computers and demand a ransom, for which he could be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
US Treasury sanctions ban all of his holdings in the US and prohibit financial and business dealings with Matveev.
“The United States will not tolerate ‘ransomware’ attacks against our people and institutions,” said Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson in a statement.
According to the Treasury Department, 75% of cyberattacks related to data theft are linked to Russia.
Also Read: Pro-Russian Hackers Target Ukraine With Fake Windows Updates
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