Russia´s Ministry of Internal Affairs´ authorities arrested nine suspected hackers of the cybercrime organization known as "Lurk", which has been quite famous recently for its alleged involvement in the theft of over $17 million from Russian banks since 2013. Naturally, we´re talking about a major operation in which this nation was once again a victim of a hack, whose perpetrators haven't been detained.
The 9 Hackers Were Located In Different Regions Of Russia
Nevertheless, the Russian police explained that 27 people had been charged so far, while another 19 are currently awaiting trial. Although it appears that there´s more hackers involved in this crime, these detentions represent the second wave of arrest from the authorities, after 50 suspects were apprehended in May 2016.
According to the spokesperson of the nation´s interior ministry Irina Wolf, these 9 alleged hackers were arrested last month in an FSB-led crackdown that was made in five different regions across Russia, including St Petersburg, Tver, Krasnodar Territory, Sverdlovsk and Moscow. This clearly shows the way in which the alleged cyber criminals were spread all over the country, far from being located in foreign nations as it was initially suggested.
The Hackers Were Sentenced To Prison
What seems to be a quite interesting detail about these arrest, is that according to the police, not all of these suspects are the malware creators of the Lurk Trojan, since these hackers would have played major roles in different operations that the group made, including the penetration of Russia´s critical infrastructure as military plants.
Apparently, these hackers were accused by the court, who ordered the nine to be jailed, but it remains unknown how much time they will have to spend in prison. Although is not known if there´s more cyber criminals involved in the bank theft that hasn't been detained yet, this is a situation that clearly shows the way in which this nation has some of the most dangerous and skillful hackers in the world.
