Help The Secret Service Find This Hacker And You Could Score A $2.5M Bounty
The United States Secret Service and United States Department of State are on the hunt for Belarusian national Volodymyr Iuriyovych Kadariya, who is wanted in connection with cybercrimes pertaining to the Angler Exploit Kit, and the agencies are willing to pay a massive reward for help in tracking him down. How massive? Up to $2.5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
What's more, the arrest and/or conviction can take place in any country, not just the United States, and whoever helps make it happen will still be eligible for the huge payment. That's how much they want this guy.
"Kadariya is charged with cybercrime offenses associated with an alleged scheme to transmit the Angler Exploit Kit (AEK), other malware, and online scams to the computers of millions of unsuspecting victim Internet users through online advertisements—so-called 'malvertising'—and other means from October 2013 through March 2022. At times during the scheme, the AEK was a leading vehicle through which cybercriminals delivered malware onto compromised electronic devices," the US Department of State wrote in a notice.
He's been indicted on numerous charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and two counts of substantive wire fraud. Note, however, that the allegations and indictments are accusations, and he is presumed innocent until if and when proven guilty.
That said, according to the Secret Service, Kadariya and his cohorts allegedly delivered 'scareware' ads to victims with fake messages designed to trick them into thinking they had contracted a virus or some other issue with their electronic device. This was part of a ploy to fool the victim into buying or downloading "dangerous software" that would grant the perpetrators remote access to the supposedly infected devices, as well ad disclose personal information, the Secret Service says.
"Kadariya and his associates used multiple strategies to profit from their widespread hacking and wire fraud scheme, including by using accounts on predominantly Russian cybercrime forums to sell to cybercriminals access to the compromised devices of victim Internet users (so-called 'loads' or 'bots'), as well as information stolen from victims and recorded in 'logs', such as banking information and login credentials, to enable further efforts to defraud the victim Internet users or deliver additional malware to their devices," the Secret Service added.
The Angler Exploit Kit dates back to at least 2011 when we first wrote about it, back when Yahoo's ad network was under attack. At the time, tt targeted vulnerabilities in software like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, to name a couple of examples.
If you know of his whereabouts and want to make a run at the $2.5 million reward, the Secret Services encourages you to drop a line to MostWanted@usss.dsh.gov, or drop a tip in person at the nearest US Embassy or consulate.
