The hacker from Mykolaiv, who cost the global company millions, was exposed in cooperation with Europol

During an international operation conducted jointly with Europol, investigators of the Cyber Police and the Main Investigative Department of the National Police of Ukraine exposed a 29-year-old hacker from Mykolaiv. The man is accused of tampering with the servers of one of the world’s leading companies in the field of e-commerce, which led to losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since 2021, the hacker used the “brute force” method to hack 1,500 accounts of the subsidiary company, after which he created a computer virus-miner to mine cryptocurrencies. He secretly infected the company’s server equipment, creating more than a million virtual computers to run the malware. During 2 years of criminal activity, the hacker withdrew almost 2 million US dollars in cryptocurrency to a controlled electronic wallet.

Law enforcement officers conducted an authorized search of the intruder’s residence, seizing computer equipment, bank cards, SIM cards, electronic media and other evidence of illegal activity. Europol set up a special task force and a Virtual Command Point (VCP) in the Netherlands, which helped block the e-wallets of the suspects.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated under Part 5 of Art. 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, investigations are currently underway to establish the possible involvement of the hacker in pro-Russian hacker groups and their accomplices.

This case is a clear example of successful international cooperation in the fight against cybercrime, which highlights the importance of global coordination in countering hacker attacks, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated and large-scale.