United States extradites Russian alleged for extortion of millions of dollars in payments for the Phobos ransomware
An accused Russian hacker who was a major administrator of the well-known Phobos ransomware campaign has been extradited by the U.S. authorities.
Evgenii Ptitsyn, 42, was recently extradited from South Korea to appear before a federal court in Maryland on November 4, prosecutors said Monday. Ptitsyn is charged with overseeing the sale, distribution, and management of Phobos, a ransomware operation that led to intrusions and the extortion of at least $16 million from more than 1,000 private and public victims worldwide.
According to a recently unsealed indictment, these victims include a Maryland-based business that supplied federal agencies with accounting and consulting services, a number of Maryland-based healthcare providers, a law enforcement union based in New York, an Illinois-based contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, and a children’s hospital located in North Carolina.
The unidentified businesses included in the indictment against Ptitsyn paid ransoms ranging from $12,000 to $300,000. One victim, an unidentified healthcare provider in Maryland, paid $2,300 to obtain a decryption key that allowed them to view their maliciously jumbled files again.
Ptitsyn joined the Phobos operation in 2020, according to the indictment. According to the prosecution, Ptitsyn assisted in the creation of the ransomware and its distribution to associates, who serve as contractors and utilize it to initiate assaults.
According to reports, Ptitsyn and his accomplices used posts on cybercrime sites to promote the Phobos ransomware for free. However, they would thereafter charge their affiliates about $300 for the decryption key, which would allow them to access the data they had stolen from their victim.
According to the indictment, the decryption fees were moved to a cryptocurrency wallet “in Ptitsyn’s possession and control,” which is one of the reasons the FBI said they apprehended Ptitsyn.
The Phobos ransomware has been documented to be used in assaults by other cybercrime organizations, such as 8Base.
“The diligent efforts and resourcefulness of law enforcement agencies worldwide — from the Republic of Korea to Japan to Europe and finally to Baltimore, Maryland — have brought Evgenii Ptitsyn to justice in the United States after allegedly extorting millions of dollars in ransom payments from thousands of victims,” U.S. deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco stated in remarks.Ptitsyn faces many charges of extortion, purposeful damage to protected computers, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, and wire fraud conspiracy. Ptitsyn could spend decades behind bars if found guilty.
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