Bulgarian investigators assisted FBI in dismantling cyber crime network

Bulgarian investigators cooperated in an FBI operation against cyber criminals who caused damages to the amount of millions of dollars.

The Bulgarian General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, the National Investigation Service and the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office took part in the operation.

This became clear at a briefing at the National Investigation Service on January 28, which was attended by the investigator from the National Investigation Service, Svetoslav Iliev, and the head of the International Department at the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, Tsvetomir Yosifov.

According to the Bulgarian investigators, the detected Internet crime is extremely complex, ingenious and has caused great harm to people. The criminal network has existed since 2019, with more than 300 victims from 27 countries, with damages amounting to about $ 46 million in various cryptocurrencies. This amount was obtained by draining information from virus-infected computers and subsequent blackmail. A Canadian citizen was detained for the crime.

"I want to especially thank my colleagues from the FBI office in Sofia for the wonderful actions we have carried out with them," said the director of the National Investigation Service.

"Since May last year, we in the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office had several requests in relation to the same case and they concern the dark web. Together with the National Investigation Service, we coordinated the actions in order to fulfil the request more effectively," the briefing was told.

"It is about one of the fastest growing networks. At the same time, the subject who is a Canadian citizen, had to be detained in the USA and the sites to be seized here. The sites hosted by a Bulgarian internet provider were used to pass instructions to the victims about where and how the ransoms should be paid, how to transfer the money and shared information that was obtained in a criminal manner. The network itself, their substantial criminal activity, began in March 2020, when the ransomware service began to be offered for a fee. They have, according to the largest resource for analyzing cryptocurrency payments, 305 victims in 27 countries. By the time of yesterday’s dismantling, they had received about $ 46 million in various cryptocurrencies," the investigators added.

The investigation in America is on-going. Procedural and investigative actions continue on our part as well. Terabytes of information have been seized, and it is to be analyzed and sent to the United States.

The mechanism of the fraud is known - fake phishing emails are sent to the victims. The moment the victim clicks on the link, the computer becomes infected with malware, the so-called ransomware, the files are encrypted, after which a separate letter is sent to request a ransom in a specific cryptocurrency. In this case, the people behind this network, to show how serious they are, publish some of the acquired sensitive information. And indeed, after being paid a ransom, they present the keys and decrypt the information. One of the first serious victims was the University of San Francisco, which paid 1,140,000 dollars to get its information back, it became clear from the data of the briefing.

Netwalker has been in existence since the end of 2019 in the dark web, offering intermediary services in attacking computer systems in order to obtain a ransom in exchange for restoring access to encrypted files.

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