The U.S. Department of Justice has announced gaining the custody of Russian-Israeli Rostislav Panev, who allegedly worked as a developer for the LockBit ransomware-as-a-service operation between 2019 and February 2024, reports Hackread.Panev’s arrest by Israeli law enforcement in August led to the sequestration of his computer, which was found to not only feature admin credentials to a dark web repository with several LockBit loader versions’ source code but also the source code of the ransomware gang’s StealBit tool and direct messages with purported LockBit lead administrator Dmitry Yuryevitch Khoroshev, according to the Justice Department.Also discovered in the investigation were records showing more than $230,000 in cryptocurrency transfers done by Khoroshev to Panev from June 2022 to February 2024.More than 2,500 victims around the world have already been compromised by the LockBit ransomware group, most of which were in the U.S., particularly those in the healthcare, education, and government sectors.
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