U.S. is offering $ 2.5M reward for Belarusian national

The United States Department of State is willing to pay a reward up to $ 2.5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Volodymyr Kadariya, a Belarusian national who is suspected of involvement in a “significant malware organization”.

Kadariya, a 38 year old man from Belarus, allegedly participated in an online scam to infect millions of computers worldwide through online advertisements, also known as ‘malvertising’, and other means from October 2013 through March 2022.

“Kadariya is charged with cybercrime offenses associated with an alleged scheme to transmit the Angler Exploit Kit (AEK), other malware, and online scams to the computers of millions of unsuspecting victim Internet users,” the U.S. Department of State says in a statement.

According to the indictment, the malvertising campaigns were designed to appear legitimate, but often redirected victim Internet users who viewed or accessed the advertisements to malicious sites and servers that sought to defraud the users or delivered malware to the users’ devices. The Angler Exploit Kit was a ‘leading vehicle’ through which malware was delivered onto compromised electronic devices.

At the time, the Angler Exploit Kit was a popular tool through which hackers infected computers and other electronic devices with malware. Back then, Angler represented 40 percent of all exploit kit infections, targeting around 100,000 devices and with an estimated turnover of around $ 34 million.

According to the British National Crime Agency (NCA), Angler has extorted tens of millions from victims worldwide. “These campaigns took a variety of forms, but generally involved the cyber criminals purchasing advertising space on legitimate websites and uploading ads which were laced with a malicious exploit kit,” the NCA explains.

“Kadariya and his associates used multiple strategies to profit from their widespread hacking and wire fraud scheme, including by using accounts on predominantly Russian cybercrime forums to sell to cybercriminals access to the compromised devices of victim Internet users (so-called ‘loads’ or ‘bots’), as well as information stolen from victims and recorded in ‘logs’, such as banking information and login credentials, to enable further efforts to defraud the victim Internet users or deliver additional malware to their devices,” the Department of State says in the indictment.

Kadariya was indicted on June 14, 2023, in the District of New Jersey with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer fraud through ‘malvertising’ and the delivery of scareware. Scareware is a form of malware that tries to make users believe their device is infected with a virus and persuade them to download harmful and dangerous software, or disclose personal and financial information.