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The US Department of Justice announced the sentencing of Ukrainian citizen Mark Sokolovsky, who is associated with the development and distribution of the Raccoon malware (aka Raccoon Infostealer, RaccoonStealer).
According to the published court documents, 28-year-old Sokolovsky (also known by the nicknames raccoon-stealer, Photix and black21jack77777) and his accomplices rented out the malware to other criminals for $75 per week or $200 per month.
After infecting the device, Raccoon collected and stole a variety of data, including login credentials, cryptocurrency wallet and email information, bank card details, and other confidential information from dozens of applications.
Recall that Sokolovsky was arrested in March 2022 in the Netherlands at the request of the FBI. Around the same time, American law enforcement officers eliminated the malware infrastructure, together with colleagues from the Netherlands and Italy. Eventually, the hacker group announced that they were suspending their activities and reported that a “friend and excellent developer” responsible for maintaining critical parts of the malware infrastructure had died during the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Apparently, this was Sokolovsky, who did not die at all, but was arrested in the Netherlands.
Since then, Raccoon’s activities have repeatedly resumed , with new versions of the malware receiving additional capabilities for stealing data.
According to the FBI, the Raccoon stealer is responsible for compromising more than 52 million credentials, which were then used for fraud, identity theft, and ransomware attacks, affecting millions of victims worldwide.
Sokolovsky was extradited to the United States in February 2024 after being charged with fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft in October 2022.
A year after his arrest, he pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than $910,000 in restitution. As it became known this week, the court ultimately sentenced Sokolovsky to 60 months in federal prison.
According to the published court documents, 28-year-old Sokolovsky (also known by the nicknames raccoon-stealer, Photix and black21jack77777) and his accomplices rented out the malware to other criminals for $75 per week or $200 per month.
After infecting the device, Raccoon collected and stole a variety of data, including login credentials, cryptocurrency wallet and email information, bank card details, and other confidential information from dozens of applications.
Recall that Sokolovsky was arrested in March 2022 in the Netherlands at the request of the FBI. Around the same time, American law enforcement officers eliminated the malware infrastructure, together with colleagues from the Netherlands and Italy. Eventually, the hacker group announced that they were suspending their activities and reported that a “friend and excellent developer” responsible for maintaining critical parts of the malware infrastructure had died during the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Apparently, this was Sokolovsky, who did not die at all, but was arrested in the Netherlands.
Since then, Raccoon’s activities have repeatedly resumed , with new versions of the malware receiving additional capabilities for stealing data.
According to the FBI, the Raccoon stealer is responsible for compromising more than 52 million credentials, which were then used for fraud, identity theft, and ransomware attacks, affecting millions of victims worldwide.
Sokolovsky was extradited to the United States in February 2024 after being charged with fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft in October 2022.
A year after his arrest, he pleaded guilty and agreed to pay more than $910,000 in restitution. As it became known this week, the court ultimately sentenced Sokolovsky to 60 months in federal prison.