New York Times: Russian espionage piggybacks on a cybercriminal's hacking - Mar. 12, 2017

New York Times: Russian espionage piggybacks on a cybercriminal’s hacking

Published March 12, 2017 at 5:27 pm

This combination of two undated file photo obtained on Dec. 29, 2016, courtesy of the FBI shows Russian citizens Evgeny Mikhailovich Bogachev (L) and Aleksey Alekseyevich Belan (R). The US Department of the Treasury designated Bogachev and Belan "for having engaged in significant malicious cyber-enabled misappropriation of financial information for private financial gain." The statement was part of the White House's Dec. 29, 2016, announcement of sanctions against Russia over hacking during the US election.

Photo by AFP

To the F.B.I., Evgeniy M. Bogachev is the most wanted cybercriminal in the world. The bureau has announced a $3 million bounty for his capture, the most ever for computer crimes, and has been attempting to track his movements in hopes of grabbing him if he strays outside his home turf in Russia.

He has been indicted in the United States, accused of creating a sprawling network of virus-infected computers to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from bank accounts around the world, targeting anyone with enough money worth stealing — from a pest control company in North Carolina to a police department in Massachusetts to a Native American tribe in Washington.