Feds charge alleged negotiator for Russian ransomware group
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The US government has charged a member of a Russian ransomware group known as Karakurt, as reported earlier by BleepingComputer. In a press release on Tuesday, the Department of Justice claims 33-year-old Deniss Zolotarjovs of Moscow, Russia, conspired to commit money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.
As outlined in the criminal complaint, the FBI alleges Karakurt stole and threatened to auction sensitive data from several companies throughout the US. The complaint pins Zolotarjovs as the hacking group’s negotiator of “cold case extortions,” in which victims don’t respond with a ransom following an attack, according to BleepingComputer.
Karakurt, which has been linked to the prolific Russian ransomware group Conti, carried out a…
