Published on: October 31, 2024
US authorities have identified and charged Maxim Rudometov, a Russian national reportedly living in Krasnodar, with creating and operating the infamous Redline infostealer malware.
Redline has been among the most widely used tools by cybercriminals, and it is available through subscription services. The infostealer allows attackers to steal credentials and financial data and bypass multi-factor authentication measures.
It was officially and fully taken town on Monday. The Dutch National Police, which said it had gained “full access” to all servers used by the Redline and Meta infostealers, said both tools are “no longer functioning” even for systems that were already infected.
The Telegram accounts associated with the Redline and Meta malware operations have also been shut down. “Until recently criminals considered themselves untouchable on this communication platform. By the takedown it’s clear that this is no longer the case,” the Dutch police said.
The 18-page complaint against Rudometov, which was filed nearly two years ago in the Western District of Texas and unsealed on Tuesday, says investigators were able to identify him through a series of security mistakes.
According to the complaint, Rudometov repeatedly used a Yandex email address to create accounts on Russian-language hacking forums. He used a few aliases across multiple platforms, such as Skype, the social media platform VK, and even an Apple account, all linked back to the same Yandex email.
Investigators accessed Rudometov’s iCloud account, where they found “numerous files identified by antivirus engines as malware.” Among these was a file analyzed by the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) and confirmed to be Redline.
“In addition to the registration information indicating RUDOMETOV was the owner of the Apple account, the account contained photos that included RUDOMETOV’s official identification documents and apparent personal photos,” the complaint reads.
Rudometov now faces charges of access device fraud, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, and money laundering. If convicted on all counts, he could receive a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison.