US Charges Hacker With Producing, Using Malicious Software - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th May, 2022) A French-Venezuelan physician has been charged in US Federal court in New York with masterminding a massive malicious software ecosystem that preyed on a significant numbers of people and with profit-sharing with cybercriminals, the US Justice Department said.

"(We're) charging Moises Luis Zagala Gonzalez , also known as 'Nosophoros,' 'Aesculapius' and 'Nebuchadnezzar,'� ... with attempted computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit computer intrusions," the Justice Department said in a press release on Monday. "The charges stem from Zagala's use and sale of ransomware, as well as his extensive support of, and profit sharing arrangements with, the cybercriminals who used his ransomware programs."

The authorities said Zagala, a 55-year-old cardiologist living in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, designed several types of malicious software that he and other cybercriminals used to obtain money from unsuspecting companies, nonprofits and institutions, by encrypting their files and then demanding a ransom for access to the decryption keys, the release said.

The authorities also said in the release that Zagala allowed criminals to buy a lease to use his software for set periods of time and also customers could become members of "an "affiliate program," where they would get user access the ransomware builder in exchange for a share of the profits generated by the ransomware attacks.

He allegedly received payment in fiat Currency and also in Bitcoin as well as the privacy cryptocurrency Monero, the release said.

Zagala's customers gave favorable reviews of his products, including one who claimed that he used the ransomware to cripple 3,000 computers. He acknowledged that his clients used his software to launch attacks, including an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group that attacked Israeli companies, the release added.

Zagala faces up to five years' in prison for attempted computer intrusion and five years' for conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, according to the release.