The Justice Department said Wednesday last week that an Armenian national is in federal custody on charges related to their alleged involvement in a wave of Ryuk ransomware attacks in 2019 and 2020.
On June 18, Karen Serobovich Vardanyan, 33, was extradited to the United States from Ukraine.
On June 20, he appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to the allegations. The seven-day jury trial Vardanyan is awaiting is set to start on August 26. The prosecution charged Vardanyan with conspiracy, computer-related fraud, and computer-related extortion Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Vardanyan and his accomplices, who include 45-year-old Levon Georgiyovych Avetisyan of Armenia and two 53-year-old Ukrainians, Oleg Nikolayevich Lyulyava and Andrii Leonydovich Prykhodchenko, are charged with gaining unauthorised access to computer networks in order to install Ryuk ransomware on hundreds of compromised workstations and servers between March 2019 and September 2020.
Lyulyava and Prykhodchenko are still at large, while Avetisyan is in France awaiting a request for extradition from the United States. According to authorities, the Ryuk ransomware was widespread in 2019 and 2020, infecting thousands of people worldwide in the private sector, state and local governments, local school districts, and critical infrastructure.
Among these are a series of assaults on American hospitals and a technology company in Oregon, where Vardanyan is the subject of a trial by federal authorities. Ryuk ransomware attacks have affected Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre, Universal Health Services, Electronic Warfare Associates, a North Carolina water company, and several U.S. newspapers.
Ryuk ransomware operators extorted victim firms by demanding Bitcoin ransom payments in exchange for decryption keys. According to Justice Department officials, Vardanyan and his co-conspirators received approximately 1,160 bitcoins in ransom payments from victim companies, totalling more than $15 million at the time.