US Slaps Biggest Ever Price On A Hacker's Head

The US State Department and FBI have both announced new rewards of up to $3 million (£1.8 million) for information on the elusive Russian cyber criminal Evgeniy Bogachev.

It is the highest reward for a cyber criminal ever. Bogachev managed to attack and scam internet users out of $100 million (£64 million) using a computer attack network called GameOver Zeus.

He is charged in several US states for conspiracy, computer hacking, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The sentence for these crimes could be over 35 years, considering how other hackers have been trialled in US courtrooms.

Bogachev is also wanted for his alleged administration of Jabber Zeus, another malware program created by the Russian hacker for financial gain.

Russia’s internal security agency is cooperating with the US investigation, but it is not clear how far the government will go to align itself with the US, especially after the recent report on firmware attacks by the US government on Russian government machines.

The FBI is aware of the potential issues extraditing a Russian hacker back to the US. It is not the first time the agency has been in a situation where it is unlikely to find the results any time soon.

In China, five military officers with connections to the Chinese government were labelled criminals by the US authorities, but there has been no update on catching these five officials and bringing them to the US to face charges.

This lack of cooperation from some of the power countries in the East is going to make it hard for the US government to tackle overseas cyber attacks.

Bogachev was working alone as far as authorities know, and had no connection to the government or any other authority. He is reportedly still in Russia evading the authorities.

Author: David Curry