A cyber criminal indicted in the US has been accused of working with Russian intelligence to steal classified government documents, according to a senior official at the US Treasury.
The man was one of two suspects in Russia indicted by the US on Thursday for their part in developing the Dridex banking malware which has stolen millions from victims in the West.Sponsored link
Victim organisations in more than 40 countries were hit by the Dridex malware, which allowed the alleged criminals to steal more than $100m (£76m) in one hacking campaign dating back to 2011.
Maksim Yakubets is accused of being the leader of the hacking group calling itself “Evil Corp” while Igor Turashev has been accused of being one of the group’s key administrators.
American and British authorities collaborated to identify and charge the criminals, who were accused of being behind “two of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade”.
Sanctions from the US Treasury target 17 individuals and seven entities tied to Evil Corp, including its “core cyber operators, multiple businesses associated with a group member” and financial organisations used by the group.
Yakubets was accused of providing “direct assistance to the Russian government” by working for the FSB, Russia’s federal security service, to acquire “confidential documents” for the intelligence agency as well as conduct other cyber operations.
Global News 
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