A 29-year-old Ukrainian national has been arrested for allegedly orchestrating a sophisticated cryptojacking scheme that yielded over $2 million in illicit profits. The individual, described as the “mastermind” of the operation, was apprehended in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on January 9 by the National Police of Ukraine with support from Europol and a cloud service provider. The arrest followed months of intensive collaboration and investigation prompted by a cloud provider’s information in January 2023 regarding compromised cloud user accounts. The suspect is accused of infecting servers of a prominent American company with a miner virus, utilizing custom brute-force tools to infiltrate 1,500 accounts and creating over one million virtual computers to sustain the operation.
According to Europol, the cloud provider shared intelligence about compromised accounts, leading to the collaborative efforts of Europol and Ukrainian authorities. The Cyber Police of Ukraine revealed that the arrested individual had been conducting the cryptojacking operation since at least 2021, employing custom brute-force tools to compromise accounts and gain access to the management of the targeted service. The hacker’s actions involved creating a vast number of virtual computers to ensure the continuous operation of the malware. In a separate announcement, Europol noted that the cloud provider’s tip had triggered the investigation and collaborative efforts that culminated in the arrest of the alleged cryptojacking mastermind.
Cryptojacking is a form of cybercrime where computing resources are unauthorizedly used for mining cryptocurrencies. The arrested individual is accused of exploiting compromised credentials to infiltrate the infrastructure, install miners, and use the processing power of infected hosts for crypto mining without consent. The investigation revealed that the suspect targeted a well-known American company, emphasizing the global nature of cryptojacking threats. The arrest is a significant development in the fight against cybercriminals engaged in cryptojacking schemes, highlighting the importance of international collaboration and information sharing to combat such cyber threats effectively.
