Russian Hacker Sentenced to 2 Years for TA551 Botnet-Driven Ransomware Attacks

A Russian national was sentenced to two years in prison for co-managing the TA551 botnet used in ransomware attacks against U.S. companies.

• •Ilya Angelov, 40, of Tolyatti, Russia, operated under aliases "milan" and "okart" and co-managed TA551 (also known as Gold Cabin, Shathak, etc.) from 2017 to 2021.
• •The group built a botnet by distributing malware via spam email attachments and monetized it by selling access to compromised machines to other criminal groups.
• •Between August 2018 and December 2019, TA551 provided access to the BitPaymer ransomware group, enabling attacks on 72 U.S. corporations and resulting in over $14.17 million in extortion payments.
• •The group also partnered with IcedID malware operators and was linked to Conti and Lockean ransomware distribution.
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