Wanted Man: Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev
The FBI is offering up to a $3 million reward for the man alleged to be behind the GameOver Zeus botnet, which is believed to have caused more than $100 million in financial losses to businesses and consumers.
“Prolific cyber criminal” Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev has been charged with a variety of crimes related to his alleged role as administrator of GameOver Zeus, including bank fraud; wire fraud; aggravated identity theft; computer fraud; money laundering and conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity, said the FBI.
Bogachev is on the FBI’s Cyber’s Most Wanted list and is believed to be in Russia, the FBI said.
GameOver Zeus, also known as P2PZeus, captured bank account numbers, passwords and other information to wire transfers from victims’ bank accounts to criminally-controlled accounts.
The malicious software silently infects computers, stealing financial information and adding the computers to a global “botnet” officials have called “the most sophisticated and damaging botnet we have ever encountered.”The infected computers are controlled remotely through a decentralized command system, according to the officials.
The FBI said Bogachev was charged in 2014 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Bogachev was also indicted by criminal complaint in Omaha, Nebraska in 2012 and charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud related to his alleged involvement in the operation of a prior variant of Zeus malware known as Jabber Zeus.
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
