Russia has arrested six people, allegedly belonging to a hacking group involved in the theft and sale of credit cards.
See also: Russia: Charges 8 gang members suspected of REvil ransomware
Russian media reports that the arrests were made at the request of investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Russian law enforcement authorities have not specified which hacker groups the arrested individuals are allegedly affiliated with.
However, three forums/marketplaces dedicated to stealing and selling stolen credit cards suddenly appeared with seizure notices claiming to be from the Russian government.
The websites SkyFraud, Ferum , and Trump's Dumps now display notifications stating that the sites were seized by the “K” Directorate of the BSTM of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
While these seizure notices refer to the same offense in the Russian Criminal Code as the arrests of the six people, it has not been confirmed whether the notices are legal or even relevant.
See also: Russia: Internet watchdog blocks six more VPNs
Security researcher Soufiane Tahirialso discovered that the source code for the sky-fraud.ru includes a hidden message for other Russian hackers, which says “WHO IS NEXT OF YOU?”
Translated into English, this warning says, “WHICH ONE OF YOU IS NEXT?”
These arrests mark the third hacking group apprehended by Russian authorities since early 2022.
In January, Russia seized $6 million and arrested fourteen people associated with REvil, a notorious ransomware operation responsible for numerous cyberattacks worldwide.
At the end of the month, Russia also arrested the leader of the Infraud, a hacking group that caused more than $560 million in losses to businesses around the world.
See also: Gamaredon hacking group: Russians attack Ukraine
This stream of arrests from Russia is unusual, as the country has no history of cooperating in suppressing cybercrime operating within its borders.
However, following the DarkSide ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline and the REvil attack on Kaseya, the White House and Russian officials are working to increase their cooperation to stem the growing wave of hacking activity originating from Russia.
