A federal grand jury indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today charge 16 defendants who allegedly developed and deployed the DanaBot malware which a Russia-based cybercrime organisation controlled and deployed, infecting more than 300,000 victim computers around the world, facilitated fraud and ransomware, and caused at least $50 million in damage.
The defendants include Aleksandr Stepanov, 39, a.k.a. “JimmBee” and Artem Aleksandrovich Kalinkin, 34, a.k.a. “Onix”, both of Novosibirsk, Russia. Stepanov was charged with conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, wiretapping, and use of an intercepted communication.
Kalinkin was charged with conspiracy to gain unauthorised access to a computer to obtain information, to gain unauthorised access to a computer to defraud, and to commit unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. Both defendants are believed to be in Russia and are not in custody.