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A2 UP FRONT
Friday 17 May 2019
U.S., European officials bring charges in global malware case

Continued from Front Cybercrime has no bor- say it was formed by the we have been unpeeling log-in credentials and then
ders, and criminals have defendants as they adver- an onion as it were that is launder the stolen money
Extradition is an often cum- taken advantage of the tised their technical skills very challenging to inves- into foreign bank accounts
bersome process that can legal complexities of trying in underground, Russian- tigate and identify,” Brady they controlled.
take years of negotiations, to fight it, said Steven Wil- language online criminal said. Brady said prosecutors al-
even in countries that son, head of the European forums. GozNym infected more ways look to recover stolen
have treaties with the U.S. CyberCrime Centre at Eu- The defendants had differ- than 41,000 computers. It funds, but that is especially
Instead, they shared evi- ropol. ent roles within the conspir- relied on spam emails, dis- challenging in international
dence with their European “Only through international acy, including developing guised as legitimate mes- cybercrime cases.
counterparts to allow of- cooperation can we hope the malware, encrypting it sages, that once opened “Proceeds were convert-
ficials in Ukraine, Moldova to tackle it,” he said, add- so it could avoid detection enabled the malware to ed to bitcoin and without
and Georgia to initiate ing the charges “provide by anti-virus software, mass be downloaded onto the the private key, it is really
prosecutions in the coun- for a safer internet for all of distributing the spam emails machines. From there, the hard to identify and ac-
tries where the defendants us.” and sneaking in to the vic- hackers could record key- cess, let alone seize, those
reside. “It represents a par- The charges in the indict- tims’ bank accounts. strokes from the victims’ accounts,” Brady told the
adigm change in how we ment include conspiracy “For the past three years, computers, steal banking AP.q
prosecute cybercrime,” to commit computer fraud,
Brady said in an interview conspiracy to commit wire
with The Associated Press and bank fraud and con-
before a news conference spiracy to commit money
in The Hague with repre- laundering.
sentatives of six countries. The investigation was an
Cybercrime networks “are outgrowth of the Justice
increasingly targetable” Department’s dismantling
when investigators work to- in 2016 of a network of
gether, Robert Jones, the computer servers, known
FBI special agent in charge as Avalanche, which host-
of the Pittsburgh office, said ed more than 20 different
at the news conference. types of malware.
“International cooperation GozNym, the malware cit-
is no longer a nicety, it’s a ed in Thursday’s case, was
requirement,” he said. among the ones hosted
Other law enforcement of- on the network and was
ficials also said the strategy designed to automate the
represents the new face theft of sensitive personal
of combating high-tech and financial information.
crime. Law enforcement officials

This undated poster released by the FBI includes five Russian fugitives that have been charged
in connection with malicious software attacks that infected tens of thousands of computers
worldwide and caused more than $100 million in financial losses.
Associated Press