US Puts Up $3 Million Reward For Hacker Evgeniy Bogachev

A reward of $3 million was recently offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US State Department for any information that will lead to the arrest or conviction of Evgeniy Bogachev. The amount is the biggest amount offered by US officials for a cyber case.

A “Wanted” poster for the Russian national was also released by the FBI. Bogachev was charged with operating GameOver Zeus in the United States. The computer attack network was allegedly behind the theft of over $100 million from numerous internet-based bank accounts.

He was charged with computer hacking, conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud in connection to the supposed role he played as the administrator of the network. In addition to the charges he is facing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Evgeniy Bogachev was also charged with federal bank fraud conspiracy in Omaha, Nebraska in connection to his supposed participation in “Jabber Zeus,” the earlier version of the Zeus malware.

Evgeniy Bogachev - Image Credit: Business Insider

Evgeniy Bogachev is reportedly still in Russia. The cyber crime division head of the FBI, Joseph Demarest, revealed that the agency is currently monitoring around sixty cyber threat groups associated with nation-states. However, he declined from identifying the countries that were supposedly backing these groups. He added that the internal security agency of Russia, the FSB, expressed its interest in collaborating with US officials with the investigation of cybercrimes. But, the offer was not associated with the case of Bogachev.

On the other hand, Demarest added that China has not shown any interest in working with the US in dealing with cybercriminals. Five Chinese military officers were indicted by the US last November. They were accused of hacking into the nuclear power, solar products, and metals industries of the United States.

He added that the agency was also able to identify the source of a massive cyberattack against Sony Pictures within a month. Demarest said they were “absolutely positive” that the government of North Korea was behind the attack against the movie studio. A number of security experts have indicated that the hackers who attacked Sony Pictures may have received help from insiders within the company. But, investigators have indicated that there was no proof to support these claims.

Demarest also indicated that in more than a hundred cyberattacks last year including the case of Evgeniy Bogachev, only a small number showed any evidence of help coming from insiders.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Wednesday February 25 2015, 12:30 PM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0