Man Arrested for distributing and selling Hive RAT Malware

[Jating]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/socal-man-arrested-federal-charges-alleging-he-schemed-advertise-and-sell-hive

So they caught the individual selling it to undercover employee, just the old and traditional way of catching criminals

After advertising the Hive RAT, according to the indictment, Chakhmakhchyan exchanged electronic messages with purchasers and explained to one buyer that the malware “allowed the Hive RAT user to access another person’s computer without that person knowing about the access.” After this purchaser told Chakhmakhchyan that “the point” of using the Hive RAT was because the victim had “20k in bitcoin on a blockchain wallet” and “project files worth over 5k,” Chakhmakhchyan agreed to sell the Hive RAT, the indictment alleges. Later, Chakhmakhchyan allegedly also sold a license for the Hive RAT to an undercover employee of a law enforcement agency.
And he was charge with,

• to advertise a device as an interception device
• to transmit a code to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer
• and to intentionally access a computer to obtain information
• as well as one count of advertising a device as an interception device

Each count carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Good riddance, hopefully he will get the maximum sentence and who knows, maybe him and SBF will be in the same jail,  .

Kidding aside, good work by the authorities, tracking and the undercover for doing his job.

[Yaunfitda]

Still a long way to go for authorities to catch up with this criminals. It's either state sponsored, which is likely very hard to arrest, or just a couple of group of individuals who's motive is to steal from unsuspecting victims. The legal system though of the US is complicated, I mean he could just point to the person in Australia and become a while blower to save face and he will likely be getting a light sentence. And this is just a drop in the ocean, as we all know that cyber criminals are being born from around the world, and target not only cryptocurrency, but everything their hand can get to make money and uses the data that they will get as a ransom.

[zasad@]

Unfortunately, this is a very common way of selling illegal software that allows you to spy on the victim’s computer and steal all files and entered passwords. But the developers do not sell their software to unverified buyers, so most likely it’s a stupid intermediary who wanted an easy way to make money.

[Jating]

Still a long way to go for authorities to catch up with this criminals. It's either state sponsored, which is likely very hard to arrest, or just a couple of group of individuals who's motive is to steal from unsuspecting victims. The legal system though of the US is complicated, I mean he could just point to the person in Australia and become a while blower to save face and he will likely be getting a light sentence. And this is just a drop in the ocean, as we all know that cyber criminals are being born from around the world, and target not only cryptocurrency, but everything their hand can get to make money and uses the data that they will get as a ransom.

Yes, we all know that, cyber criminals are very smart, however, smart as they are, they are bound to slip. And that one mistake will lead to their arrest. In this case, he did talk to undercover and it was just a matter of time before he will get arrested.

Unfortunately, this is a very common way of selling illegal software that allows you to spy on the victim’s computer and steal all files and entered passwords. But the developers do not sell their software to unverified buyers, so most likely it’s a stupid intermediary who wanted an easy way to make money.

Yes, the intermediary that slip up, he is so stupid that he didn't know that he was talking to the authorities as well. Maybe it was the look of the $$$ that is in front of him and so he let his guards down. And it lead to his arrest.

[Husires]

If this accusation deserves about 20 years in prison, then the years of prison that SBF must spend are few compared to such a fraud.
Is it possible for someone to own more than 20 thousand Bitcoins and store them in an online wallet without even buying HW or even an airgapped wallet? This person is stupid and it is difficult to believe such claims. They are too good to be true.

[avikz]

It's not even a tip of the iceberg! There are millions like this guy who sells and deploys such tools to spy on people and to steal information. It's always good to hear a scammer got busted but the enforcement authorities have a long way to go, really! These scammers are smart, educated and knows how to hide themselves well! So the enforcement agencies need to become smarter to stop these nuisances and to create a safer world wide web. The Darkweb is literally full with such criminals selling anything from drugs, weapons and such softwares to do criminal activities.

[Husires]

really! These scammers are smart, educated and knows how to hide themselves well! So the enforcement agencies need to become smarter to stop these nuisances and to create a safer world wide web. The Darkweb is literally full with such criminals selling anything from drugs, weapons and such softwares to do criminal activities.

I don't think they are that smart. If someone comes and asks you for spyware for a person who has 20,000 Bitcoin, this is too good to be true, as its value is currently more than a billion dollars, which is a lot of money for a person to keep in a hot wallet, no matter how wealthy he is.

[zasad@]

It's not even a tip of the iceberg! There are millions like this guy who sells and deploys such tools to spy on people and to steal information. It's always good to hear a scammer got busted but the enforcement authorities have a long way to go, really! These scammers are smart, educated and knows how to hide themselves well! So the enforcement agencies need to become smarter to stop these nuisances and to create a safer world wide web. The Darkweb is literally full with such criminals selling anything from drugs, weapons and such softwares to do criminal activities.

There is a lot of scam on the darknet, especially everything related to weapons. If someone thinks that he will become a successful criminal on the darknet, he will be deceived many times before he finds the real seller. And a newcomer will be very lucky if he contacts scammers and not a special agent.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

From the Op's post:

the victim had “20k in bitcoin on a blockchain wallet”

Note that it says 20k in bitcoin. NOT 20k Bitcoins. Huge difference there...
As for the person arrested - hope he gets the maximum sentences.

[zasad@]

From the Op's post:

the victim had “20k in bitcoin on a blockchain wallet”

Note that it says 20k in bitcoin. NOT 20k Bitcoins. Huge difference there...
As for the person arrested - hope he gets the maximum sentences.

By income standards in the United States, for trying to steal 25 thousand dollars, a femida must first flog the criminal’s ass and then send him to forced labor. Just because a person spends several years in prison, he will not improve. And in forced labor, he will at least benefit society.

[Lucius]

~snip~
Good riddance, hopefully he will get the maximum sentence and who knows, maybe him and SBF will be in the same jail,  

It doesn't seem logical to me that this scammer receives approximately the same sentence as the Bankman who caused financial damage in the billions of $. I don't mean that he doesn't deserve at least 10 years in prison, but I think that people like him should get an additional sentence that would include a ban on internet access for a certain period - or at least that he must have special software on his computer/smartphone with which would be monitored when it comes to his online activities.

Maybe it sounds strange or as a threat to human rights, but someone who has done something like this once is very likely to do it again if he has the chance. Deterrence in the form of restrictive measures is by far the best measure when it comes to such people.

[zasad@]

Maybe it sounds strange or as a threat to human rights, but someone who has done something like this once is very likely to do it again if he has the chance. Deterrence in the form of restrictive measures is by far the best measure when it comes to such people.

We are discussing a crime and a not very experienced criminal who was caught trying to sell malware. And every day hundreds or thousands of such crimes will be committed.
If you look at the statistics on the increase in cybercrime by country, many countries will have to build reservations for such people. But there is no budget for this and no laws either