FBI offers $3 million for brains behind Cryptolocker botnet

The FBI has promised a $3 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a Russian hacker. Never before has such a high reward been offered in a case about internet crime.

The reward applies to information about the Russian Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev. He is suspected of being the mastermind behind the Gameover Zeus botnet. The FBI believes the man may be in Russia, but said in a statement that the US is committed to tracking down organized crime participants “wherever they may be.”

Midway through last year, the man was identified as the main suspect behind the botnet, which played a crucial role in the spread of the Cryptolocker ransomware. He has been on the FBI’s Cyber’s Most Wanted list ever since. In addition, the botnet was used to send spam, DDoS attacks and steal banking information, which were used to funnel money into accounts owned by the criminals. Estimates of the number of infections of Windows systems with the Gameover Zeus Trojan range from 500,000 to a million.