[BreachExchange] Member of FIN7 Hacking Group Sentenced to US Prison

[Destry Winant]

https://www.securityweek.com/member-fin7-hacking-group-sentenced-us-prison

A Ukrainian national arrested for his role in a hacking group that
compromised millions of financial accounts was sentenced to a decade
in prison, US prosecutors said Friday.

Fedir Hladyr, 35, had a high-level role as a manager and systems
administrator for a hacking group known at FIN7, authorities said.

He was one of three Ukrainians arrested in mid-2018 for hacking more
than 100 US companies and stealing millions of credit and debit card
numbers, according to the Justice Department.

"The defendant and his conspirators compromised millions of financial
accounts and caused over a billion dollars in losses to Americans and
costs to the US economy," acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas
McQuaid said in a release.

Hladyr was arrested in Germany, then extradited to Seattle where he
pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiring to commit computer hacking and
wire fraud, according to authorities.

"This criminal organization had more than 70 people organized into
business units and teams," prosecutor Tessa Gorman said in the
release.

"This defendant worked at the intersection of all these activities and
thus bears heavy responsibility for billions in damage caused to
companies and individual consumers."

The Justice Department said members of the "prolific hacking group"
also targeted computer networks in Britain, Australia and France.

In the US alone, FIN7 stole "more than 20 million customer card
records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more
than 3,600 separate business locations," according to prosecutors.

Among the companies which have publicly disclosed hacks by FIN7 are
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chili's, Arby's, Red Robin and Jason's Deli.

"FIN7 carefully crafted email messages that would appear legitimate to
a business' employee, and accompanied emails with telephone calls
intended to further legitimize the email," prosecutors said at the
time of the arrests.

Once booby-trapped files attached to emails were opened, they would
trigger malware to steal payment card data which was sold on online
underground marketplaces.