The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of a Latvian woman for her alleged role as a developer in the Trickbot malware.
- Alla Witte was arrested on February 6 in Miami, Florida, for participating in a criminal organisation that deployed the Trickbot malware.
- According to the DOJ, Witte wrote the code used by the malware to control, deploy, and manage ransomware payments.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of a Latvian woman for her alleged role as a developer in the Trickbot malware.
According to the press release published by the DOJ, Alla Witte, aka Max, 55, is charged in 19 counts of a 47-count indictment, which accuses her of participating in a criminal organisation referred to as “Trickbot Group,” which deployed the Trickbot malware.
The Trickbot Group operated in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Suriname and primarily targeted victim computers belonging to businesses, entities, and individuals, including those in the Northern District of Ohio and elsewhere in the United States. Targets included schools, hospitals, public utilities, and governments.
Witte worked as a malware developer for the Trickbot Group and wrote code associated with the control, deployment, and ransomware payments.
In addition, Witte allegedly provided code to the Trickbot Group that monitored and tracked authorised users of the malware and developed tools and protocols to store stolen login credentials.
Witte and her co-conspirators allegedly infected millions of victim computers with the Trickbot malware. They used it to harvest banking credentials to gain access to other personal information, including credit card numbers, passwords, emails, Social Security numbers and addresses.
Witte allegedly helped develop the malware, which was used to enable ransomware demands and payments. Victims would obtain a notice that their computers were encrypted and were directed to buy special software through a bitcoin address linked to the Trickbot Group to have their files decrypted.
Trickbot is a popular banking trojan that was first spotted in October 2016, and its authors have continuously upgraded it with new modules and features.
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