The Russian hacker was found guilty by an American court in relation to the development of the malware Trickbot. The malicious agent, active during the pandemic period, was widely used to extort money in the hospital and business context.
The man, the forty year old Valdimir Dunaevwas extradited from South Korea to the United States during 2021 on several charges related to online criminal activity, ranging from identity theft up at bank fraud. According to the US Department of Justice, Dunaev provided “Specialized services and technical capabilities to support the Trickbot project“.
Dunaev, last Thursday, was tried and found guilty by an Ohio court, with a sentence that will be issued on March 20th and which risks up to 35 years in prison.
Trickbot: in total, nine hackers ended up in the dock
The Trickbot case, however, also involved other hackers. There is talk of another eight exponentsall Russian hackers, who would have more or less close ties with the secret services of the country of origin.
One of the members, namely the Latvian citizen All White, was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud by an American court last June. Witte, specifically, was sentenced to two years and eight months of imprisonmentfor contributing to writing the malware and participating in operations ransomware.
On the other hand, the cybercriminal collective, active since 2016, has for years been one of the most feared names when it comes to cyber threats. In fact, before the aforementioned malware, the Russian hackers involved created the famous ransomware Contimassively active both in the United States and in more than 30 other countries.
The trial against Dunaev, however, leverages Trickbot’s period of activity. In the period between 2020-2021, therefore during the pandemic, the malware recorded its peak of activity, causing considerable damage to hospital structures already affected by the emergency.