Alla Witte, a 55-year-old Latvian woman, has been charged with multiple counts for her alleged role in developing malware for the notorious Trickbot group. Witte has been charged with 19 counts of a 47-count indictment. Witte was arrested in February in Miami. Trickbot initially started several years ago as a banking Trojan, however, it has since been adapted to become a multi-purpose modular threat leveraged by cybercriminals to commit crimes and gain access to victims’ networks, often deploying additional malware and ransomware. The indictment claimed that Witte developed code that contributed to these adaptations concerning the control, deployment, and payments of ransomware and software used to track authorized users of the malware.
Witte also allegedly worked on code that dictated protocols to store stolen login credentials. The Department of Justice states that Witte and co-conspirators stole money and sensitive information from organizations, individuals, and businesses across the globe beginning as early as November 2015. Trickbot helped the group steal online banking logins and personal information including that of a highly sensitive nature such as credit card numbers and social security numbers. Witte and her co-conspirators allegedly used bank account access to launder money and steal funds, according to the Department of Justice.
Read More: Latvian Woman Charged with Developing Malware for Trickbot