Ransomware 'Most Wanted': Cops Seek Head of Black Basta

Crackdown Targets Multiple Members of Cybercrime Group, Including 'Hash Crackers' Mathew J. Schwartz (euroinfosec) • January 19, 2026

Police raided two suspected members of the notorious Black Basta ransomware group and circulated an international arrest warrant for the Russian national accused of being the founder and ringleader of the operation.

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"Black Basta is one of the most active ransomware groups of recent years," said German authorities probing the cybercrime operation, together with law enforcement agencies from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The "transnational hacker group," active from March 2022 through February 2025, amassed more than 600 victims worldwide, mostly in the West, sowing a trail of disruption as it amassed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency in ransom payoffs from victims.

Black Basta counted more than 20 individuals as ...