US: Russian man offered worker $1M to sew malware in Nevada

A Russian citizen has been arrested and charged with offering an employee of a Neva company $1 million to sew malware for an attack to harvest company data for ransom, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, was arrested Saturday after meeting with employee and n driving overnight from Re to Los Angeles, where FBI said he planned to fly out of country, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Re.

plot was stopped before any dam occurred, said FBI Special nt in Charge Aaron Rouse in Las Vegas.

Kriuchkov me an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Los Angeles on a charge of conspiracy to intentionally cause dam to a protected computer, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich said.

A magistrate judge ordered Kriuchkov to remain in federal custody pending trial, prosecutor said. A conviction could result in a sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Court records did t immediately reflect name of an attorney who could speak on Kriuchkov’s behalf. He is expected to be transferred in custody to Re in coming days.

“We are committed to holding accountable anyone who plots to use malicious cyber tactics to harm American consumers and companies,” Trutanich said.

Kriuchkov traveled to United States on his Russian passport and a tourist visa, prosecutors said.

business in Neva was identified only as “Victim Company A” in a criminal complaint that alleges Kruichkov spent more than five weeks communicating by an internet chat app and in person with unnamed employee. Some meetings were monitored and recorded by FBI. It is t clear in documents if money changed hands.

employee was expected to install software enabling an entity referred to as “ group" initiate a “distributed denial of service” attack — flooding and crashing company computer system to occupy tech security officials while a second intrusion obtained data.

Or suspected co-conspirators are identified in complaint by nicknames including Kisa and Pasha; a person is identified as Sasha Skarobogatov; and references are me to at least one or failed effort to target ar company.