Getty Pictures | Charles O’Rear
Federal prosecutors have charged a 26-year-old Ukrainian nationwide with working a malware service that was chargeable for stealing delicate knowledge from greater than 2 million people around the globe.
Prosecutors in Texas said on Tuesday that Mark Sokolovsky, 26, of Ukraine helped function “Raccoon,” an information stealer program that labored utilizing a mannequin referred to as MaaS, brief for malware-as-a-service. In change for about $200 per 30 days in cryptocurrency, Sokolovsky and others behind Raccoon equipped clients with the malware, digital infrastructure, and technical help. Clients would then use the service to contaminate targets with the malware, which might surreptitiously harvest credentials for electronic mail and financial institution accounts, bank cards, cryptocurrency wallets, and different non-public info.
First seen in April 2019, Raccoon was in a position to extract delicate knowledge from a variety of functions, together with 29 separate Chromium-based browsers, Mozilla-based apps, and cryptocurrency wallets from Exodus and Jaxx. Written in C++, the malware may also take screenshots. As soon as Raccoon has extracted all knowledge from an contaminated machine, it uninstalls and deletes all traces of itself.
An indictment unsealed on Tuesday stated greater than 2 million victims had private knowledge stolen by Raccoon. Thus far, prosecutors stated they’ve recovered greater than 50 million distinctive credentials and types of identification taken within the operation and imagine there’s extra stolen knowledge that has but to be discovered.
Prosecutors wrote:
By way of varied investigative steps, the FBI has collected knowledge stolen from many computer systems that cyber criminals contaminated with Raccoon Infostealer. Whereas a precise quantity has but to be verified, FBI brokers have recognized greater than 50 million distinctive credentials and types of identification (electronic mail addresses, financial institution accounts, cryptocurrency addresses, bank card numbers, and so on.) within the stolen knowledge from what seems to be tens of millions of potential victims around the globe. The credentials seem to incorporate over 4 million electronic mail addresses. The US doesn’t imagine it’s in possession of all the info stolen by Raccoon Infostealer and continues to analyze.
The FBI created a web site that permits folks to find out if their knowledge was amongst that recovered up to now. The positioning, raccoon.ic3.gov, permits guests to enter the e-mail tackle of an account they management. If the tackle is included within the recovered knowledge, the FBI will ship the tackle an electronic mail notifying the customer of the theft. Officers are encouraging individuals who imagine they’re victims to finish the grievance type utilizing this page operated by the Web Crime Criticism Heart.
The unsealed indictment listed a number of particular actions Sokolovsky allegedly carried out to assist function the Raccoon service. These actions included acquiring the transport layer safety certificates utilizing one of many net domains that hosted Raccoon, working accounts that marketed Raccoon on on-line boards, and making a Git-based supply code repository account to be used in bettering and modifying the Raccoon code.
On the similar time that Dutch authorities arrested Sokolovsky final March, the FBI and regulation enforcement companions within the Netherlands and Italy dismantled Raccoon Infostealer’s infrastructure and took the malware’s current model offline.
Prosecutors charged Sokolovsky with one rely of conspiracy to commit pc fraud and associated exercise in reference to computer systems; one rely of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; one rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering; and one rely of aggravated identification theft. If convicted, Sokolovsky faces a most penalty of 20 years in jail for the wire fraud and cash laundering offenses, 5 years for the conspiracy to commit pc fraud cost, and a compulsory consecutive two-year time period for the aggravated identification theft offense.
The defendant is presently being detained within the Netherlands pursuant to an extradition request by US authorities. In September, a court docket in Amsterdam granted the extradition request. Sokolovsky stays in Amsterdam whereas that call is on enchantment.
