Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov was arrested in Los Angeles on August 22 and charged with conspiracy after he allegedly offered an employee a large sum of money to infect their company’s computer with ransomware. Kriuchkov is a 27-year old Russian national who was currently traveling in the US under a tourist visa at the time of the offense. Kriuchkov was likely working with co-conspirators to recruit an employee from the company in Nevada, where Kriuchkov was traveling.
Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators were likely attempting to bribe the employee into infecting the company’s network with malware that would allow Kriuchkov and his accomplices to take over the organization’s system, access sensitive company data, and encrypt files. The US Department of Justice stated that Kriuchkov was using social engineering tactics to spearhead the initiative, which would then turn into a typical ransomware case.
Read More: US Arrests Tourist Over Malware Conspiracy
