The FBI added five new cybercriminals to its Most Wanted list - including a new entry at number one, Alexsey Belan.
A reward of $100,000 is offered for any information on Belan, a Latvian with a Russian passport, who is alleged to have hacked major e-commerce companies in the U.S. in 2012 and 2013.
“The FBI will not stand by and watch our cyber adversaries attack our networks; we will track down and arrest individuals who have made it their mission to spy on and steal from our nation and citizens,” said Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber branch.
“Because cyber crime knows no boundaries, cyber criminals think they can hide overseas. But we are using our international partnerships and the publicity generated by our Cyber’s Most Wanted to ferret them out.”
Mashable commented that, “The gangsters of Cyber's Most Wanted are more diverse than those that mixed with former Most Wanted mainstay James 'Whitey' Bulger, Irish godfather of Boston. The list, along with rewards for turning in the hustlers, offers a window into the global evolution of cybercrime.”
The five new additions bring the total on the list to ten, according to The Guardian’s report, and encompass crimes as diverse as hacking and fraud, and are responsible for, “hundreds of thousands of victims and tens of millions of dollars in losses,” the Guardian said.
Russia Today, however, merely commented that “Russian hackers top FBI’s most wanted,” quoting research from Group-IB showing that Russian cybercrime is now worth $4.5 billion.
The current top five are below - the FBI’s full list is here.
1. Aleksey Belan
Reward: $100,000
Age: 26
Nationality: Latvian/Russian
Alexsey Alekseyevich Belan is wanted for his alleged involvement in the unauthorized taking of data from three U.S.-based companies in 2012 and 2013. Belan is also alleged to have knowingly possessed and used, without lawful authority, means of identification belonging to employees of the companies.
2. Peteris Sahurovs
Reward: $50,000
Age: 25
Nationality: Latvian
Peteris Sahurovs is wanted for his alleged involvement in an international cybercrime scheme that took place from February of 2010 to September of 2010. The scheme utilized a computer virus that involved the online sale of fraudulent computer security programs that defrauded Internet users of more than $2 million.
3. Artem Semenov
Reward: $50,000
Age: Unknown
Nationality: Russian
Artem Semenov is wanted for his alleged participation in an Eastern European cyber crime ring, operating out of New York, which is known for recruiting money mules to open bank accounts, cashing out money received through unauthorized money transfers, and then transferring the money overseas.
4. Shaileskumar P Jain
Reward: $20,000
Age: 43
Nationality: Indian
Shaileshkumar P. Jain is wanted for his alleged involvement in an international cybercrime scheme that caused internet users in more than 60 countries to purchase more than one million bogus software products, resulting in consumer loss of more than $100 million. It is alleged that from December 2006 to October 2008, through fake advertisements placed on legitimate companies’ websites, Jain and his accomplices deceived internet users into believing that their computers were infected with “malware” or had other critical errors in order to encourage them to purchase “scareware” software products that had limited or no ability to remedy the purported defects.
5. Bjorn P Sundin
Reward: $20,000
Age: 35
Nationality: Swedish
Alleged co-conspirator of Shaileskumar P Jain (above).
