German Police Crack Down on REvil Ransomware Mastermind
The Unmasking of a Mastermind: German Police Identify Key Figure Behind GandCrab and REvil Ransomware Operations
A major breakthrough in the fight against ransomware has been achieved with the identification of a Russian national as the mastermind behind the notorious GandCrab and REvil (also known as Sodinokibi) ransomware operations.
Key Figure Identified
- Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin, 31, of Krasnodarskiy, Russia, has been linked to over 130 extortion attempts, resulting in more than $2 million in ransoms being paid by victims.
- These illicit activities are estimated to have caused over $40 million in damages.
Ransomware Operations Spanning Multiple Years
Shchukin’s involvement with these ransomware operations spanned from early 2019 to mid-2021.
During this period, he and his co-conspirators, including Russian national Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk, 43, targeted various entities, including enterprises and public institutions.
As a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), GandCrab emerged in early 2018 and shut down in mid-2019, boasting of generating over $150 million annually from its operations.
REvil, emerging concurrently with GandCrab’s retirement, quickly gained notoriety as its successor.
Law Enforcement Efforts Lead to Arrests and Sentences
- Law enforcement efforts led to the seizure of REvil’s servers in late 2021, followed by the arrest of seven individuals associated with the ransomware operations.
- Subsequent investigations resulted in the arrest of multiple individuals allegedly tied to REvil in January 2022.
- By 2024, four members of the group had been sentenced to prison.
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