US officers arrest Russian national for plotting to attack American firm

Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov allegedly offered an employee at the firm $1 million for help in installing malware onto the company network

Federal officers in Los Angeles arrested a Russian national last week for attempting to install malware in a computer network.

Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, was presented in the US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, where he was detained pending trial.

According to court documents, Kriuchkov plotted with his associates to recruit an employee ("CHS1") of an unnamed Nevada-based company ("Victim Company A"), and offered the employee $1 million to help implant malware in the company's network.

'The malware would supposedly provide Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators with access to the company's system,' the US attorney's office said in a statement.

'After the malware was introduced, Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators would extract data from the network and then threaten to make the information public, unless the company paid their ransom demand.'

Kriuchkov arrived in New York on a tourist visa on 28^th July before moving to Reno, the Justice Department said. He was already in contact with CHS1 via WhatsApp before arriving in the USA.

In a meeting with CHS1 in Reno, Kriuchkov allegedly revealed that he works for a group on "special projects," and that the group had made successful ransomware attacks against private firms, including one that paid $4 million.

Kriuchkov offered CHS1 $500,000 for installing the malware, and said that other members of his group would launch DDoS attacks against the firm to distract their security team.

CHS1 then reported the entire incident to the FBI, and all future meetings and communication were undertaken under surveillance.

In a subsequent meeting, Kriuchkov again tried to persuade CHS1 to participate in the scheme. CHS1 asked for a $1 million payment, which Kriuchkov agreed to pay.

On the 21^st August, Kriuchkov informed CHS1 that he was leaving the US and that his associates would contact CHS1 with instructions on how to install the malware.

FBI officers arrested Kriuchkov on the 22^nd August. If found guilty he faces up to five years in prison for his role in the scheme.

This is not the first incident in which a foreign national has been charged by the US authorities for targeting US firms using malicious software.

In May, US federal officials arrested a Ukrainian national for his alleged involvement in cyber campaigns run by notorious hacking group Fin7.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice had announced the arrest of three members of the Fin7 group who had allegedly stolen over 15 million credit card details.