US extradites Russian national on hacking, insider trading charges

CyberScoop reports that Russian national Vladislav Kliushin has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges of hacking two U.S. company networks to obtain non-public information that was then used for stock trading. Federal prosecutors alleged the Kliushin and four others — namely Ivan Yermakov, Nikolai Rumiantcev, Igor Sladkov, and Mikhail Irzak — were able to earn at least $82.5 million from the hacking and insider trading scheme that lasted from February 2018 to August 2020. All have been charged with conspiring to secure unauthorized computer access and wire and securities fraud, but Yermakov, Rumiantcev, Sladkov, and Irzak remain at large. Kliushin and Rumiantcev, along with Yermakov, who was already indicted for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election, have been working a Moscow-based IT and media monitoring firm M-13. The Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation have been found to use the company's services, which includes information security audits, application analysis, full-fledged targeted attack simulations, and load testing.