WEEK 4 - Most Wanted Hacker
Evgeniy Mikhailovitch Bogachev was listed as one of FBI "most wanted.” What makes him different from the other members of this esteemed list is that he is a hacker. Not a man of violent crimes or a mobster who organized and induced a criminal conspiracy ring. No, that of a guy who used his keyboard as a gun in a good old fashioned bank robbery. He also used his weapon of choice to hold up every day citizens like you and me and often ransomed valued data more money instead of outright just stealing it. This guy was so good at what he does, he even ransomed information to a Massachusetts police station. This was all done with his creations of various infamous malware.
By using malicious software that "enslaves" computers and steals user names and passwords, the 30-year-old and his gang allegedly hacked into hundreds of thousands of banks accounts, emptying up to $7 million at a time from unsuspecting firms across America. Most were unaware that the attacks, from a program called GameOver Zeus, or GOZ, had even happened. A second program, known as "ransomware", would freeze victims' computer files and threaten to destroy them unless an online ransom was paid. It targeted not just businesses but ordinary home computer users, freezing precious online family photo albums and even children's school projects (Freeman and Mirovalev, 2014).
To this day, Evgeniy Mikhailovitch remains free and is still a criminal at large. With him being hailed a hero at home, it is unlikely there will be much cooperation from the Russian authorities for his arrest or extradition. American banks fear him and there is a $3 million-dollar reward for assistance in his capture.
By using malicious software that "enslaves" computers and steals user names and passwords, the 30-year-old and his gang allegedly hacked into hundreds of thousands of banks accounts, emptying up to $7 million at a time from unsuspecting firms across America. Most were unaware that the attacks, from a program called GameOver Zeus, or GOZ, had even happened. A second program, known as "ransomware", would freeze victims' computer files and threaten to destroy them unless an online ransom was paid. It targeted not just businesses but ordinary home computer users, freezing precious online family photo albums and even children's school projects (Freeman and Mirovalev, 2014).
To this day, Evgeniy Mikhailovitch remains free and is still a criminal at large. With him being hailed a hero at home, it is unlikely there will be much cooperation from the Russian authorities for his arrest or extradition. American banks fear him and there is a $3 million-dollar reward for assistance in his capture.
