The U.S. Justice Department has charged a suspect from Ukraine and a Russian national over a July ransomware attack on an American company, according to indictments made in court filings on Monday, and has seized $6 million in ransom payments.
The latest U.S. actions follow a slew of measures taken to combat ransomware that earlier this year hit big companies, including Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, and crippled fuel delivery for several days in the U.S. Southeast.
Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian national arrested in Poland last month, will face U.S. charges for deploying ransomware known as REvil, which has been used in hacks that have cost U.S. firms millions of dollars, the court filing showed.
REvil gained notoriety as the Russian group behind the ransomware attack against meatpacker JBS SA.
Vasinskyi conducted a ransomware attack over the July 4 weekend on Florida-based software firm Kaseya that infected up to 1,500 businesses around the world, according to the charges filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
