Threat Management

Cyber ring takedown one of largest, U.S. says

The Justice Department indicted 36 people in a cyber ring created by a Ukrainian national on identity theft trafficking charges.

It was from the Infraud online forum that the ring, whose slogan is “In Fraud We Trust,” helped cybercriminals buy and sell Social Security numbers, passwords and other private information, and fleeced victims of more than $530 million.

Thirteen defendants were arrested in the U.S. and elsewhere after a Las Vegas grand jury indictment was unsealed.  

“Today's indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan said in a release. “As alleged in the indictment, Infraud operated like a business to facilitate cyberfraud on a global scale.”

He contended that “the losses they intended to cause amounted to more than $2.2 billion.” 

The criminal organization was created in October 2010 by 34-year-old Ukrainian Svyatoslav Bondarenko aka “Obnon,” aka “Rector,” aka “Helkern” and by March 2017 had 10,901 registered members.

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