One of the "old wolves" of cybercrime has finally been sentenced. For many of us veteran cybercrime fighters, it's a strange feeling to see this chapter close nearly 15 years later. Jim Craig, Hal Pomeranz and I spent three years at the FBI, starting in 2009, dedicated to tracking down Penchukov and his crew, as well as others like Bogachev and Yakubets. We knew them as Tank, MonsterTrack (or Slavik) and Aqua. In 2010, they were the targets of the international takedown operation dubbed Trident Breach. At 31 years old, I had recently completed nearly 12 years of service in the United States Marine Corps, where I participated in numerous exciting operations. But supporting this investigation and Trident Breach was something else. Unfortunately, it didn't work as they all continued to be very active for many years after that operation.
During that time the official losses attributed to Tank's crew came to $70M, but I'm confident it was closer to $100M. This was of course distributed across all the various criminal services that facilitated the activity - mule networks, cashout crews, malware coders, bulletproof hosters, spammers, etc. They all got a piece of the pie while businesses in the US and UK often had to shut their doors or start over from scratch.
It's impossible to fully quantify the impact and damage these individuals caused globally as they also helped shape the cybercrime ecosystem we see today. That's why they are called the "old wolves". Ironically, they also contributed to the emergence of the Cyber Threat Intelligence industry, which was largely created to protect businesses from their activities.
I wasn't at the sentencing, but I'm told Tank has aged significantly since we saw him in 2009 emptying the payroll accounts of businesses across the US and DJing at Red Line and Liverpool clubs in Donetsk, Ukraine as DJ Slava Rich. I suppose years of war in Ukraine and living as an internationally wanted man will do that to you.
Some past reporting worth a read:
Notorious Hacker Kingpin ‘Tank’ Is Finally Going to Prison
https://lnkd.in/g5jd_Ffj
Inside the FBI, Russia, and Ukraine’s failed cybercrime investigation
https://lnkd.in/gCggXQeH
Inside the Hunt for Russia’s Most Notorious Hacker
https://lnkd.in/gnTwj8F3