Yanluowang ransomware IAB pleads guilty

A Russian man has pleaded guilty to hacking US companies and selling access to ransomware groups, Aleksei Olegovich Volkov, who operated online under the hacker name chubaka[.]kor, and worked as an initial access broker for the Yanluowang ransomware. According to court documents, between July 2021 and November 2022 Volkov regularly sold access to individuals who later deployed the Yanluowang ransomware.

Investigators tied Volkov to intrusions and subsequent ransomware attacks on seven US companies, including a bank, a telco, and an engineering firm. He breached a corporate employee’s account, escalated access to the employer’s network, and then sold that access to other cyber criminals.