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UK unmasks LockBit ransomware affiliate as high-ranking hacker in Russia state-backed cybercrime gang | TechCrunch

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Summary
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67% Informative

The U.K. National Crime Agency has unmasked a long-standing affiliate of the LockBit ransomware group to the notorious Russia -backed Evil Corp , a cybercrime gang with links to the Russian government.

Aleksandr Ryzhenkov is close friends with Evil Corp founder and leader Maksim Yakubets , who was charged by the U.S. government in 2019 for his alleged role in developing and distributing the Dridex malware.

The authorities provided evidence of further overlaps between the two gangs, in part by briefly resurrecting the dark web leak site of LockBit that the authorities had previously seized.

The authorities said LockBit ’s code was written in such a way that it would not delete a victim’s data even if the victim paid a ransom demand. This detail was unknown to LockBit ’s affiliates, the NCA said..

VR Score

55

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46

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61

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formal

Language

English

Language complexity

68

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possibly offensive

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not hateful

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short-lived

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1

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