Pankov Darius

Pankov Darius

Biography

2023: Extradition to the U.S. on charges of hacking the computers of tens of thousands of Americans

Georgia extradited to the United States a Russian wanted by the FBI, who is accused of hacking into the computers of tens of thousands of Americans. The press service of the Georgian prosecutor's office announced this on March 13, 2023.

This report says that the Russian was detained in the city of Kobuleti on October 22, 2022. The decision to extradite was made by the Tbilisi City Court at the request of the prosecutor's office. An investigation conducted in the United States found that a Russian in 2016-2019, using a computer virus he created, took possession of user data in the United States.

According to the prosecutor's office, the suspect "using an Internet platform sold the data he received and the computer virus itself to other persons." In total, according to the prosecutor's office, the hacker made a profit of about 1 million lari (about $370 thousand).

The report of the Georgian prosecutor's office also contains a link to information from the US Department of Justice, which refers to the extradition of Russian Darius Pankov, suspected of hacking and detained in Georgia on October 4, 2022.

According to the indictment, Punkov developed the malware NLBrute. Powerful malware was able to compromise secure computers by decrypting login credentials, such as passwords, the US department reported on February 22, 2023.

According to the US Department of Justice, Dariy Pankov transferred the credentials of more than 35 thousand compromised computers for sale on the website and received illegal income in the amount of more than $350 thousand.

The Georgian prosecutor's office expressed its readiness in the future to successfully cooperate with the competent US authorities in order to bring the wanted persons to justice, the ministry said in a statement.^[1]

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