The FBI foiled the plans of a 27-year-old Russian national (Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov) to hire a company employee to intercept secrets data from the company that worked in Nevada.
She wanted to convince him to settle down malicious software on their network, and then demand ransom from the company under the threat of leaking data that had been stolen from their systems.
Kriuchkov was arrested on August 22, 2020, in Los Angeles, after receiving a phone call from an FBI agent and trying to leave the United States.
"After contacting the FBI, Kriuchkov traveled the same night from Reno to Los Angeles," a news release from Ministryof Justice. Kriuchkov asked an acquaintance to buy him a plane ticket in an attempt to leave the country.'
The malware would then give Kriuchkov and his associates access to the company's systems, allowing them to collect and steal sensitive documents, which could later be used as a lever to persuade the company to pay a ransom to prevent leaks. of her stolen data.