Ukrainian administrator of Raccoon Infostealer Malware arrested

A Ukrainian national accused of operating the Raccoon Infostealer malware-as-a-service (MaaS) has appeared in court in the United States after being arrested in the Netherlands.

Mark Sokolovsky, 28, was arrested in March 2022, when the FBI and law enforcement authorities in Italy and the Netherlands dismantled the Raccoon Infostealer infrastructure.

In October 2022, Sokolovsky was indicted in the US for his role in distributing the Raccoon Infostealer malware to millions of computers worldwide. Using malware such as phishing and other social engineering tactics, login credentials, financial data, and other personal information were stolen. According to court documents, in addition to stealing information from victims’ systems, Raccoon Infostealer’s administrators also “lent” access to the malware, charging around $200 per month in cryptocurrency . In 2022, the FBI announced that it had collected various types of data from computers infected with Raccoon Infostealer. This included over 50 million unique credentials and forms of identification. The US government said last week that it does not believe it has all the information stolen by the Raccoon Infostealer, and is continuing to investigate the incident, according to the US Department of Justice. The FBI has set up a website where victims can enter their email addresses to check whether their personal information is part of the US government data repository.

Sokolovsky is charged with conspiracy to commit computer, telecommunications and money laundering fraud, as well as identity theft. He appeared in court on February 9 and is expected to stand trial.

Source: securityweek.com