Russian man accused of selling prolific hacking tool extradited to US

A 28-year-old Russian male implicated of establishing and offering a hacking tool utilized to acquire the login details for 10s of countless computer systems worldwide was jailed in the nation of Georgia and extradited to the United States, the Justice Department stated Wednesday.

Dariy Pankov is implicated of marketing access to more than 35,000 computer systems, making more than $350,000 in illegal sales, and making it possible for cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks and tax scams, district attorneys stated.

Pankov’s arrest is the current relocation by United States police to attempt to capture implicated Russian cybercriminals who venture beyond Russia. United States President Joe Biden in 2021 advised Russian President Vladimir Putin to rule in criminal hackers, however Russia’s full-blown intrusion of Ukraine a year ago has actually soured hopes of bilateral cooperation on the problem.

After being jailed in Georgia, which surrounds Russia, in October, Pankov made a preliminary look in a federal court in Tampa on Tuesday, the United States lawyer for the Middle District of Florida stated in a declaration.

Igor Litvak, a Brooklyn based attorney noted as representing Pankov in court records, did not right away react to an ask for discuss Wednesday night.

Pankov is being kept in Pinellas County Prison beyond Tampa, where he was reserved on Monday, Sgt. Amanda Sinni, a representative for the Pinellas County Constable’s Workplace, informed CNN.

The hacking tool that Pankov is implicated of establishing– called “NLBrute”– utilized a typical strategy for splitting passwords by flooding a computer system with password guesses.

Many cybercrime groups have actually utilized the NLBrute tool, according to Adam Meyers, senior vice president of intelligence at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

” It resembles a lockpick weapon for intruders,” Meyers informed CNN.

News of Pankov’s arrest follows the January arrest of a Russian cryptocurrency executive in Miami who apparently supervised the exchange of numerous countless dollars with drug traffickers and cybercriminals.