Lockbit Ransomware engineer sent to the United States to face criminal accusations

• Rostislav Panev, an engineer at Lockbit, was sent to the USA to take charges for allegedly developed ransomware for the attract bit.
• The authorities encouraged the victims to submit reports on their experiences about the crime, promised and promised a reward of 10 million US dollars for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Khoroshev.

The attracting engineer Rostislav Panev, a man with Russian and Israeli citizenship, was delivered to the United States because he allegedly developed ransomware for the attraction group.

The authorities arrested him in Israel in 2023

After a request from the United States, he appeared in front of a US judge on March 14 and stayed in custody while waiting for the process. Prosecutors claim that he worked with attraction from 2019 to early 2024. During this time he programmed a virus that attacked over 2,500 destinations in 120 nations, including 1,800 people in America.

The victims of this hack included individuals, small companies, companies, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure. The cyber criminals stole at least 500 million US dollars and also caused the financial damage to attract.

During the examination, administrator registration information was found on Panevs device that gave them access to a dark web repository that contained various versions of the source code of the ransomware.

Court files claim that PALEV with the main operator of Lockbit, Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, told a cyber criminal forum that they created to discuss tasks related to the builder and another control panel of ransomware. Some other documents showed that Khoroshev sent several cryptocurrency payments of more than $ 230,000 between mid-2022 and early 2024.

After his arrest in Israel, Palev admitted to carry out various programs in connection with programming for attract bitbit such as software development and advice. He also confirmed the receiving payments that correspond to the marked payments of the US authorities. One of the main projects on which he worked included the writing of code to deactivate security programs and spread infections in various networks.

In addition, he developed other harmful programs and gave the group technical advice. Lockbit worked with partners who introduced attacks and demanded money from the victims. They also started stealbit, a tool with which stolen information was extracted. At the time of the letter, seven members of Lockbit were charged in New Jersey, including Palev, Khoroshev, Mikhail Vasiliev and Ruslan Astamirov.

Support for victims of attract bitbit malware and the reward for information

The people who were affected by LockBit attacks are asked to report every detail to the FBI via www.ic3.gov, since the authorities have contributed to developing tools that can help to restore some encrypted files and help the transmission of reports to determine whether this is possible.

In addition, the US State Department offers up to $ 10 million as a reward for everyone who receives information about the capture or conviction of KHOROSHEV, and many similar rewards are available for other high-ranking attraction members.

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