Russia: Moscow court orders arrest of 8 suspected hackers over US Colonial Pipeline breach

A Moscow court, on Saturday, ordered the arrest of all eight individuals who are suspected to be members of the Revil hacking group, which was responsible for malware assaults on United States businesses, Sputnik reported, quoting Ksenia Rozina, a court spokesperson. Revealing the names of the alleged members, Rozina said Andrei Bessonov, Roman Muromsky, Mikhail Golovochuk, Ruslan Khansvyarov, Dmitry Korotayev, Alexei Malozyomov, Artyom Zayets, and Alexei Puzyrevsky will be held in detention until March 13-14. 

It is worth noting that wire fraud charges have been filed against all of the suspects. Following a request from the US, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) said 14 individuals had been arrested during operations. The United States has tied the criminal organisation to the May closure of the Colonial Pipeline and a hack on the meat company JBS, ANI reported.  

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Tverskoi District Court confirmed the arrest on January 15. Furthermore, this announcement seemed to be an unusual exhibition of US-Russian cooperation during the time when the two countries are facing strained relations due to the Ukraine border conflict. 

Russian agents searched 25 locations and detained 14 suspects

The FSB claimed in its release that its operatives had searched 25 locations and detained 14 suspects in all. The FSB also claimed it had taken 20 expensive automobiles among the assets it had seized. In addition to this, the US announced in November 2021, that it would pay up to $10 million for information leading to the identity or whereabouts of anybody with a major role in the Revil gang, Radio Liberty reported.  

Furthermore, one of the people apprehended, according to a senior US administration official, was reportedly responsible for the May ransomware assault against Colonial Pipeline, which resulted in a massive interruption of gasoline supply up and down the US East Coast. 

Unites States President Joe Biden appealed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at their first summit meeting in June of last year to go against cybercriminals operating from within Russia who target firms all over the globe, particularly in the United States

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