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Crime Security

Russian Man Admits Ransomware Plot Against Tesla In Nevada (apnews.com) 25

A Russian man has pleaded guilty in the U.S. to offering a Tesla employee $1 million to cripple the electric car company's massive electric battery plant in Nevada with ransomware and steal company secrets for extortion, prosecutors and court records said. The Associated Press reports: In a case that cybersecurity experts called exceptional for the risks he took, Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reno. Prosecutors alleged that Kriuchkov acted on behalf of co-conspirators abroad and attempted to use face-to-face bribery to recruit an insider to physically plant ransomware, which scrambles data on targeted networks and can only be unlocked with a software key provided by the attackers. Typically, ransomware gangs operating from safe havens hack into victim networks over the internet and download data before activating the ransomware.

"The fact that such a risk was taken could, perhaps, suggest that this was an intelligence operation aimed at obtaining information rather than an extortion operation aimed at obtaining money," said Brett Callow, a cybersecurity analyst at anti-virus software company Emsisoft. "It's also possible that the criminals thought the gamble was worth it and decided to roll the dice," Callow said. The FBI said the plot was stopped before any damage happened.
Although Kriuchkov says the Russian government was aware of his case, prosecutors and the FBI have not alleged ties to the Kremlin.

"His guilty plea to conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer could have gotten him up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine," the report says. "But he's expected to face no more than 10 months under terms of his written plea agreement."
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Russian Man Admits Ransomware Plot Against Tesla In Nevada

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  • Intelligence operation? Who knew the Russians wanted to get into the EV game.

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Just a criminal enterprise. The reason they failed, they did not use the right approach. It should be carrot and stick, you compromise the target first (Epstein style, drugs and kiddy fiddling) and then you offer the bribe. Take the bribe or be exposed. The other method start with more innocuous criminal activity, like buy data you don't even want and then work up to compromising the systems. They were impatient, the targeted individual could not know whether or not it was a setup and took the safe route (h

  • I wonder what Russian prisoner we'll exchange him for.
  • by baomike ( 143457 ) on Saturday March 20, 2021 @11:45AM (#61179502)

    Pleaded doth rasp upon the ear,
      wherefore I hold pled so dear.
    Dived is of a similar ilk
    which makes dove a sound like silk

  • Computer sabotage is terrorism and should be dealt with accordingly because nothing less impresses criminals.

    The Cold War never ended, detente failed long ago, and our old enemies never stopped (despite being rescued from fates they deserved in WWII).

    These are enemy societies (regardless of their yowling shills) not nations with enemy governments. That does not mean every PERSON in those societies is an enemy, but they're fine with genociding Chechens (until Putin cut a deal with Kadyrov the Younger) and Ui

  • Looking for hook up with a stranger! Ready for any experiments! --==>>> http://bit.do/fNic6 [bit.do]
  • They should extradite him to the US so Elon can launch him into space in another Tesla.

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