FBI puts accused Russian hacker on wanted list after allegedly making millions of dollars in ransoms

A Russian man has been placed on the wanted list by America's FBI after allegedly being involved in cyberattacks that garnered millions of dollars in ransom payments from victims whose computers were targeted.

In a statement published on Monday, the US Justice Department accused Evgeny Polyanin of conducting ransomware attacks against multiple victims, including businesses and government entities. Polyanin allegedly used the notorious Sodinokibi/REvil software to infect computers and would only remove it after money was paid. After charges were filed, the FBI released a 'Wanted' poster.

As well as filing charges, the Justice Department also announced the seizure of $6.1 million in funds, traced back to ransom payments received by Polyanin. He is believed to be in Russia, most likely in the city of Barnaul in Siberia.

In the same statement, the Justice Department announced charges against a Ukrainian national for multiple ransomware attacks. In particular, Yaroslav Vasinskyi is accused of being behind the July takedown of American software company Kaseya.

Vasinskyi is already in custody in Poland, where he was arrested in October. He is currently awaiting extradition proceedings.

Earlier this year, in a phone call with the Kremlin, US President Joe Biden asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to "take action" against cyber criminals based in his country.

"I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil even though it's not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is," Biden later explained.

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