Ukrainian hackers arrested at the USA’s request
On Wednesday, US authorities announced the arrest of three key members of a large East European criminal cyber-group known as FIN7. The hackers are accused of attacking more than a hundred American companies and stealing millions of clients’ credit and debit cards.
All three hackers, Dmytro Fedorov, Fedir Khladyr and Andrii Kolpakov are citizens of Ukraine. Khladyr remains in Federal custody in Seattle after his arrest in Germany in January and later extradition to the United States. Fedorov and Kolpakov remain in detention in Poland and Spain waiting for extradition to the USA.
Seattle-based attorney Annette Hayes said that starting from at least 2015, FIN7, also known as Carbanak Group and Navigator Group, “used malware tools” to infiltrate the databases of American companies including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chili's, Arby's, Red Robin, Jason's Deli and local businesses in Washington State.
“These hackers think they can hide behind keyboards in faraway places and that they can escape the long arm of the United States law,” Hayes said. “They cannot do that.”
The group has been accused of breaching the computer networks of companies in 47 states and the District of Columbia, and of stealing credit card records from over 6,500 point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 business locations, the Justice Department said.