A member of the infamous Ryuk ransomware operation who specialised in gaining preliminary entry to company networks has been extradited to the USA.
The suspect is a 33-year-old international man who was arrested in April 2025 in his residence in Kyiv on the request of the FBI. He was extradited to the USA yesterday, June 18.
In 2023, the Ukrainian cyber police, the Nationwide Police, and worldwide legislation enforcement companions started investigating a ransomware operation whose members carried out assaults on firms in France, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA.
This operation led to the identification, seizure of gadgets, and arrest of a number of cybercriminals residing in Ukraine for his or her involvement within the LockerGoga, MegaCortex, Hive, and Dharma ransomware households.
In an announcement, Ukraine’s Nationwide Police says the investigation additionally allowed them to determine a Ryuk ransomware member who specialised in getting access to company networks after which handing it off to different members to steal information and deploy the ransomware.
“By means of the evaluation of the data obtained because of the investigative actions, it was doable to moreover determine a 33-year-old member of the group who was engaged in looking for vulnerabilities within the company networks of the sufferer firms,” reads the announcement.
“The information obtained by the hacker was utilized by his accomplices to plan and perform cyberattacks.”
Whereas the identify of the 33-year-old man is presently unknown, Ukraine says that the suspect was beforehand positioned on a global wished record by the FBI and was charged with quite a few crimes by the USA.
The Ryuk ransomware gang was lively between 2018 and the center of 2020, when it was answerable for quite a few assaults on organizations throughout virtually all sectors, together with healthcare through the Covid pandemic.
In 2020, the ransomware gang rebranded because the Conti ransomware operation, which turned probably the most lively gangs on the time.
In 2022, the Conti ransomware gang shut down, splintering into quite a few teams, with some nonetheless lively immediately.
Researchers beforehand tracked ransom funds to the cybercrime operation and estimate that Ryuk earned $150 million whereas lively.
BleepingComputer contacted the Division of Justice with questions in regards to the extradition and can replace the story if we obtain a response.
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