The U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ, indicted Andrey Turchin, known under the pseudonym "fxmsp," with various federal crimes. Turchin allegedly founded a cybercrime group that targeted the computer networks of several companies. After stealing each company’s data, Turchin’s group allegedly sold the data on the dark web.
Turchin, a 37 year old Kazakhstan national, is affectionately known on the dark web as "the invisible god of networks." He allegedly sold access to thousands of networks breached with his malware attacks, amassing a million dollar crypto fortune over the course of three years.
The Western District of Washington is now conducting criminal indictment procedures against Turchin, who is accused of attacking companies based in over 40 countries.
No arrests yet
The Kazakhstan and British authorities also assisted the U.S. to unseal the indictment against "fxmsp." U.S. Attorney, Brian T. Moran, said:
"Cybercrime knows no international borders, and stopping these crimes requires cooperation between an array of international partners. I commend Kazakhstan for its assistance in this investigation. I am hopeful these critical international partnerships between cybercrime investigators will lead to holding Andrey Turchin accountable in a court of law."
Although the DoJ's announcement didn't specify that the Kazakhstan police had already arrested Turchin, an unknown number of alleged co-conspirators were also identified by the FBI. The indictment does not mention their identities.
Fxmsp’s cybercriminal structure
U.S. law enforcement detailed the cybercriminal operations allegedly led by "fxmsp" and how they managed to process the transactions:
"Prices typically ranged from a couple thousand dollars to, in some cases, over a hundred thousand dollars, depending on the victim and the degree of system access and controls. Many transactions occurred through use of a broker and escrow, which allowed interested buyers to sample the network access for a limited period to test the quality and reliability of the illicit access."
Cointelegraph recently reported that the total USD value of Bitcoin (BTC) transferred on the dark web rose by 65% in Q1 2020, despite a decline in transactions during the same period in 2019.