Eduard Benderskiy, a former high-ranking official within the Russian intelligence services, was named and sanctioned by Western law enforcement agencies on Tuesday in a paper describing him as a key enabler and protector for the Evil Corp cybercrime group. In the paper published Tuesday by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the FBI and Australian Federal Police, Benderskiy was confirmed to be Yakubets’ father-in-law and described as using his “extensive influence with the Russian state to protect the group,” particularly following the sanctions and indictment. Alongside Ryzhenkov and Benderskiy, the British government announced it was sanctioning a tranche of other Evil Corp members on Tuesday, and the US Department of Justice has unsealed an indictment charging Ryzhenkov for using BitPaymer ransomware to target victims across the US. At the time of the 2019 indictment, its leader Maksim Yakubets was also charged with providing direct assistance to the Russian government by using his access to victims’ computers to acquire “confidential documents” for the FSB, Russia’s internal security service, at the same time as conducting criminal activities. Back in 2017 the U.S. charged two FSB officers for directing criminal hackers to compromise Yahoo accounts, while just last year the British and U.S. government sanctioned cybercriminal Vitaly Kovalev, a senior member in the Trickbot group, who was described as having a relationship with the Russian intelligence services. In the paper on Tuesday, Evil Corp was described as being tasked “to conduct cyberattacks and espionage operations against NATO allies” courtesy of Benderskiy’s ongoing relationship with the Kremlin, although he does not appear to currently hold any formal position within the country’s security apparatus. Prior to the indictment, Benderskiy was described as being a key enabler of the group’s relationships with Russia’s intelligence services, and in the wake of several of the group’s senior members being outed, Benderskiy provided them with security and ensured they were not pursued by Russia’s internal authorities. The paper is published as the law enforcement agencies name another member of the Evil Corp group, Aleksandr Ryzhenkov, for the first time. The identification of Benderskiy is the most significant publicly known link between the Russian state and the country’s enormous and lucrative cybercrime underworld, although Western officials say the case is exceptional rather than the norm. Ryzhenkov is described as Yakubets’ right-hand man, and is the most senior member of Evil Corp not directly related to Yakubets.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Tue, 01 Oct 2024 14:20:22 +0000