The White House in Washington DCWASHINGTON Jan 15 The United States applauds the steps the Russian leadership is taking to fighting hacker groups on its territory, as a senior White House official commented on the FSB's detention of the hacker group REvil.
"We welcome reports that the Kremlin is taking steps in law enforcement to combat malicious activity emanating from.. .territories (of Russia — ed.)", she said.
The representative of the American administration added that one of those arrested was probably involved in the attack on the Colonial Pipeline. She also expressed hope that the alleged hackers will be brought to justice «not only for their previous crimes, but also to prevent future ones.» On Friday, it became known that the FSB stopped the activities of the REvil hacker group. The operation was carried out in cooperation with the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad and Lipetsk regions. According to the FSB, the hackers developed malicious software, organized the theft of money from the bank accounts of foreigners and cashed them out, including by purchasing expensive goods on the Internet. />In the United States, more than two million dollars stolen from Russia were seized. The basis for the search activities was the appeal of the competent US authorities. The American side was informed about the results of the operation. During searches at 25 addresses, more than 426 million rubles were seized from 14 members of the group, including in cryptocurrency, 600 thousand dollars, 500 thousand euros, computer equipment, crypto wallets used to commit crimes, and 20 premium — cars bought with stolen money. The detainees were charged under the article on «illegal circulation of means of payment.» The court has already sent two members of the group under arrest.Biden announced the fulfillment of his promise to PutinIn early November, the United States charged the Ukrainian Yaroslav Vasinsky and the Russian Yevgeny Polyanin with cyber fraud, and also included them in the sanctions list. Vasinsky was arrested in Poland, and at the end of December, the court of the Polish city of Lublin approved his extradition to the States. Polyanin, on the other hand, was at large — as the FBI believed, in Barnaul. It was assumed that both belonged to the REvil group, which managed to collect up to $ 200 million in ransom from the victims. According to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Polyanin got $13 million, more than six of which the authorities managed to confiscate. The pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline was subjected to a cyber attack in May last year. He had to temporarily suspend work, which led to supply disruptions and rising gasoline prices. As a result, the company paid the hackers a ransom of $4.4 million in bitcoins. Later, part of this amount was returned.