A top-level hacker from Russian crime group jailed for hacking into hundreds of millions of computers and locking them with ransomware and demands a ransom to unlock it.
According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), investigation, Zain Qaiser, 24, made huge profits with global malware campaign targeting more than 20 countries. He has been jailed for six years and five months.
He uses fraudulent identities and bogus companies to pose like a legitimate advertisement company and once they gained an advertising space, they post advertisement tied with malware.
Once the user click’s on the advertisements it delivers a malicious payload including the Angler Exploit Kit that developed by Qaiser’s Russian-speaking associates and browser to infect Reveton ransomware strain.
The malware leverages the vulnerability in the victim’s machine and infects the system with the malicious payload. The locked systems display a message to be from law enforcement or a government agency and ask victims to play fine between $300-$1,000 to unlock the device.
The campaign affects millions of users around the globe and the victims are directed to pay the ransom through virtual and cryptocurrencies.
He earned more than £700,000 with malware campaigns, he was admitted under 11 offenses, including blackmail, fraud, money laundering, and computer misuse, and was jailed at Kingston Crown Court.
“NCA investigators later identified a series of financial accounts linked to Qaiser, including an overseas crypto-currency account. Cumulatively, these accounts received in excess of £100,000, despite him having no job and declaring no earnings.”