The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced charges Thursday against Rami Khaled Ahmed for allegedly helping to develop and deploy Black Kingdom, which spread to “approximately 1,500 computer systems” in the U.S. and elsewhere. A 36-year-old man believed to be residing in Yemen participated in the Black Kingdom ransomware operation over a prolific two-year span, U.S. prosecutors said this week. The U.S. victims included a medical billing services company in Encino, California, as well as a ski resort in Oregon, a school district in Pennsylvania and a health clinic in Wisconsin, prosecutors said. Cybersecurity researchers warned about a burst of activity of Black Kingdom in March 2021 as the gang targeted Microsoft Exchange servers. “The ransomware either encrypted data from victims’ computer networks or claimed to take that data from the networks,” prosecutors said. If apprehended, he faces three charges: one count of conspiracy, one count of intentional damage to a protected computer and one count of threatening damage to a protected computer. Ahmed was part of the operation from March 2021 until at least June of 2023, prosecutors said. Prior to that, he was a digital editor at WAMU 88.5, the NPR affiliate in Washington, and he spent more than a decade editing coverage of Congress for CQ Roll Call.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 02 May 2025 19:15:16 +0000