Earlier this yr, the U.S. authorities indicted Russian hacker Mikhail Matveev, additionally identified by his on-line monikers “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin,” accusing him of being “a prolific ransomware affiliate” who carried out “important assaults” towards corporations and important infrastructure within the U.S. and elsewhere.
The feds additionally accused him of being a “central determine” within the improvement and deployment of the infamous ransomware variants like Hive, LockBit, and Babuk. Matveev is such a outstanding cybercriminal that the FBI designated him as considered one of its most wished hackers. Matveev, who the FBI believes he stays in Russia, is unlikely to face extradition to the US.
For Matveev, nonetheless, life appears to go on so effectively that he’s now taunting the feds by making a T-shirt together with his personal most wished poster, and asking his Twitter followers if they need merch.
When reached by information.killnetswitch on X, previously Twitter, Matveev verified it was actually him by exhibiting an image of his left hand, which has solely 4 fingers, per Matveev’s FBI’s most wished web page. Matveev additionally despatched a selfie holding a chunk of paper with this reporter’s identify on it.
After he agreed to do an interview, we requested Matveev a dozen questions on his life as a most wished hacker, however he didn’t reply any of them. As a substitute, he complained that we used the phrase “hacker.”
“I don’t like this designation — hacker, we’re a separate sort of specialist, sensible and utilizing our data and sources with out water and writing articles,” he wrote in an X direct message. “I used to be solely when it comes to monetary motivation, roughly talking, I used to be occupied with what to do, promote folks or develop into. it, [sic] let me let you know how I misplaced my finger?”
At that time, Matveev stopped answering messages.
The FBI declined to remark.
Matveev’s on-line shenanigans, which embody giving prolonged interviews to cybersecurity journalists, posting selfie movies of himself driving round whereas listening to Metallica, and writing about his hacking actions, present that he doesn’t appear to care about being on the FBI’s most wished listing. And so long as he doesn’t go away Russia, his life will not be that a lot totally different that it was earlier than he acquired indicted.
UPDATE, Sept. 18, 2023, 3:58 p.m. ET: This story was up to date to incorporate the FBI’s no remark and quotes from Matveev’s video on Twitter.
