An Iranian nationwide has pleaded responsible within the U.S. over his involvement in a global ransomware and extortion scheme involving the Robbinhood ransomware.
Sina Gholinejad (aka Sina Ghaaf), 37, and his co-conspirators are mentioned to have breached the pc networks of assorted organizations in america and encrypted recordsdata with Robbinhood ransomware to demand Bitcoin ransom funds.
Gholinejad, who was arrested in North Carolina in early January, pleaded responsible to at least one rely of laptop fraud and abuse and one rely of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He faces a most penalty of 30 years in jail. He’s scheduled for sentencing in August 2025.
“These cyber assaults prompted important disruptions and tens of thousands and thousands in losses, together with to the Metropolis of Greenville, North Carolina, and the Metropolis of Baltimore, Maryland,” the U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) mentioned.
“Baltimore misplaced greater than $19 million from the injury prompted to their laptop networks and the ensuing disruption to a number of important metropolis companies, together with on-line companies for processing property taxes, water payments, parking citations, and different revenue-generating features, which lasted many months.”
In keeping with courtroom paperwork, Gholinejad and others infiltrated and maintained unauthorized entry to sufferer laptop networks between January 2019 and March 2024, after which delicate data was copied to digital personal servers underneath their management and deployed the ransomware pressure.
The ill-gotten proceeds had been laundered by cryptocurrency mixing companies and by transferring belongings between various kinds of cryptocurrencies, a way often called chain-hopping. The menace actors additionally hid their identities and actions by utilizing digital personal networks and servers.
Robbinhood was one of many cybercrime actors to latch onto convey your personal susceptible driver (BYOVD) assaults, using a official however susceptible Gigabyte driver (gdrv.sys) to escalate privileges and disarm security software program.
“Cybercrime shouldn’t be a victimless offense – it’s a direct assault on our communities, as seen on this case. Gholinejad and his co-conspirators orchestrated a ransomware scheme that disrupted lives, companies, and native governments, and resulted in losses of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} from unsuspecting victims and establishments,” mentioned performing U. S. Legal professional Daniel P. Bubar for the Jap District of North Carolina.
