The United States government filed lawsuits against two hackers linked to a cybercrime group behind the Sodinokibi or REvil ransomware attacks on over a thousand companies including Kaseya and critical infrastructures worldwide.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said criminal charges have been filed against Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian national who was arrested in Poland, and Yevgeniy Polyanin, a Russian national who remains at large.

In separate indictments, the United States government charged Vasinskyi and Polyanin with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, substantive counts of damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted on all counts, the Ukrainian hacker faces a maximum penalty of 115 years in prison while the Russian hacker faces 145 years in jail.

The U.S. government requested the Republic of Poland to extradite Vasinskyi to face the criminal charges against him. The Ukrainian hacker was allegedly among those responsible for carrying out the REvil ransomware attack against Kaseya on July 4. The attack affected hundreds of companies in the United States and overseas. The REvil ransomware criminal gang demanded $70 million in ransom payment for the encryption to restore data they encrypted.

Polyanin was allegedly linked to the Sodinokibi ransomware attacks against companies and government entities in Texas and elsewhere.   Law enforcement officials seized $6.1 million in ransom payments received by the Russian hacker, according to the Justice Department.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick garland said, “Cybercrime is a serious threat to our country: to our personal safety, to the health of our economy, and to our national security. The United States, together with our allies, will do everything in our power to identify the perpetrators of ransomware attacks, to bring them to justice, and to recover the funds they have stolen from their victims.”

On the other hand, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said, “The arrest of Yaroslav Vasinskyi, the charges against Yevgeniy Polyanin and seizure of $6.1 million of his assets, and the arrests of two other Sodinokibi/REvil actors in Romania are the culmination of close collaboration with our international, U.S. government and especially our private sector partners."

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