Russian police bring down "ransomware" scammers

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 1 Sep 2010 at 09:47

Russian police are closing the net on an online criminal gang suspected of running a “ransomware” operation.

The gang infected users' computers, then demanded money in order to unlock them, according to the official Itar Tass news agency.

Ransomware scams are a global problem and, according to security company Fortinet, extortion-based malware accounted for nine of the detections in its malware top ten list in March.

The Moscow branch of the Russian Investigation Committee said it had instituted a criminal case against 10 detainees under two articles of the Russian Criminal Code – “swindling” and “creation, use and spread of harmful programmes for computers” - an Itar Tass source reported.

The ten detainees, all “Muscovites, computer operators,” are part of a crime family, and more arrests are expected.

Itar Tass said the operation involved 20 house searches and was carried out by the Moscow economic crime service with support from specialists of the information security group.

“It was established that the detainees circulated virus programmes via various internet sites, including social networks, that blocked the operation of customers’ computers,” said the source. The infected party was then told to send a text message to gain a code to unlock the computer.

After siezing computers, the police said more than 3,000 internet users - many of them overseas - had fallen victim to the scam in April alone, with the criminals scooping a known £20,000 for their troubles.

However, the crime family arrested is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, with Russian officials telling Itar Tass that the annual profit of such law-breakers topped £20 million.