The world’s most-wanted cybercriminal, Russia’s Mikhail Matveev, is believed to be behind the recent theft of thousands of documents stolen from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Matveev already has a $10 million bounty on his head offered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for information leading to his arrest in relation to a ransomware attack on the Washington police department in 2021. Matveev is also charged with damaging computers and transmitting ransom demands in federal grand jury indictments in New Jersey and the District of Columbia.
The recent MoD breach in the UK, in which Matveev is also alleged to have been heavily involved, has exposed confidential data from the UK’s most secretive facilities and military installations. These include the HMNB Clyde nuclear submarine base, home to Trident submarines, and the Porton Down chemical weapons development laboratory. Details about security equipment at Reaper-drone base RAF Waddington have also been compromised, as has the base of the British Army 14th Signals Regiment, which deals in electronic warfare.
According to UK government sources, these breaches are merely the most recent in a series of significant breaches that have taken place over the summer. Last week, UK government minister Oliver Dowden warned that Russia-aligned hackers are known to have started to focus on the UK in recent months, aiming to “disrupt or destroy” Britain’s critical infrastructure.
US prosecutors allege that Matveev, dubbed the “Moriarty of cybercrime” in honor of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes’s arch-enemy, is at the center of Russian ransomware gangs that lock up computer files and demand exorbitant payoffs from US companies and government agencies. According to the US Justice Department, three of the types of ransomware that Matveev has allegedly helped develop and execute have cost victims $200 million in extortion fees. Matveev is also charged with damaging computers and transmitting ransom demands in federal grand jury indictments in New Jersey and the District of Columbia and is believed to be hiding out somewhere in Russia, a country that has no extradition treaty with the US.
Matveev, full name Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, should not be confused with Russian Communist Party MP Mikhail Matveev, who has spoken out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
