The identity of the Black Basta ransomware gang leader has been confirmed by law enforcement in Ukraine and Germany, and the individual has been added to the wanted list of Europol and Interpol.
Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) identified Oleg Evgenievich Nefedov, a 35-year-old Russian national, as the leader of the Black Basta ransomware gang.
The Ukrainian police in collaboration with German authorities also identified two additional individuals allegedly working for the ransomware operation and conducted raids at two locations in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.
The police say that the two suspects specialized in gaining initial access to target networks and prepared the ground for the subsequent phases of the ransomware attack.
"According to investigators, the suspects specialized in technically breaching protected systems and were involved in preparing ransomware-based cyberattacks," Ukraine's cyberpolice said.
"The attackers performed the functions of so-called hash crackers - individuals who specialize in extracting passwords to accounts from information systems using specialized software," the press release explains.
After getting access credentials belonging to company employees, the suspects breached internal corporate systems and increased the privileges of the stolen accounts.
During the raids at the locations of the two suspected members of the Russian-affiliated hacker group, the Ukrainian police seized digital storage devices and cryptocurrency assets.
From the police raid at a suspect's house
Source: cyberpolice.gov.ua
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