US offers $10 million reward for Russian hacker

The US authorities have offered a $10 million reward for information about the location of 22-year-old Russian Amin Timovich Stigal. He is suspected of using the WhisperGate malware against, among others, the Ukrainian government.

According to the US Department of Justice, Stigal is affiliated with the Russian intelligence service GRU. The suspect is said to have used WhisperGate to disrupt the systems of the Ukrainian government. This is said to have happened on January 13, 2022, more than a month before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among others, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the State Portal for Digital Services and the Ministry of Education and Science were attacked.

WhisperGate is designed to look like ransomware, but it is malware that is designed to completely destroy the target computer and its data. In conjunction with the WhisperGate attacks, the suspect and other accomplices compromised several Ukrainian computer systems, stole sensitive data, including patient health records, and defaced websites, the ministry wrote. WhisperGate has also been used to attack countries that support Ukraine, including the United States. If Stigal is captured and extradited to the United States, he could face a maximum prison sentence of five years.