US Offers $10 Million Reward for Ukrainian Ransomware Operator

The US on Tuesday announced a reward of up to $10 million for information on a Ukrainian national indicted for his role in administering the LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim ransomware families.

The individual, Volodymyr Viktorovich Tymoshchuk, also known as Boba, Deadforz, Farnetwork, and Msfv, 28, is accused of compromising the networks of hundreds of organizations in the US and abroad, to deploy ransomware and extort ransom payments from the victims.

According to a May 2024 superseding indictment that was unsealed on Tuesday, the intrusions caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, including costs related to remediation, damage caused to computers, and ransom payments.

The ransomware executable, the indictment alleges, was customized for each victim, so that the attackers could create decryption keys that would work only for a specific organization.

“If a victim paid the ransom demand, the perpetrators would send a decryption tool, which enabled the victim to ...