U.S. charges Venezuelan doctor with selling ransomware used by Iranian group

NEW YORK, Might 16 (Reuters) – A Venezuelan heart specialist who taught himself pc programming offered software program that was utilized by an Iranian hacking group to assault Israeli firms, U.S. prosecutors mentioned on Monday in bringing prison expenses towards him.

Moises Zagala, 55, licensed his software program to cybercriminals who deployed it to extort victims for cash, in accordance with a criticism filed in federal courtroom in Brooklyn, New York.

Zagala marketed his Jigsaw v. 2 instrument on a web based discussion board for $500, and provided to promote the underlying supply code for $3,000, the criticism mentioned.

Breon Peace, the U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of New York mentioned in a press release that Zagala bragged about profitable assaults utilizing his applications, “together with by malicious actors related to the federal government of Iran.”

Zagala faces two counts of tried pc intrusions and conspiracy to commit pc intrusions. He lives in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, and has not been arrested by U.S. authorities. A message Reuters despatched to an Instagram account for Zagala’s clinic in Ciudad Bolivar was not instantly returned.

In late 2019, he began providing one other product, Thanos, to hackers in change for some income from their ransomware assaults, in accordance with the criticism, which was written by FBI agent Chris Clark. Clark purchased a license for this system and downloaded it to a pc in the USA.

Zagala in 2020 posted hyperlinks on a message board to information articles in Russian about an Iranian hacking group, MuddyWater, that used Thanos software program to focus on Israeli organizations, Clark mentioned.

U.S. authorities in February described MuddyWater as a bunch of Iran-linked cyber operators and mentioned it had focused a spread of presidency and private-sector organizations throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Iran’s mission to the United Nations referred to as the allegations “baseless.” learn extra

A few of Zagala’s purchasers had been directed to make funds to a PayPal account registered to his brother in Florida, the courtroom doc mentioned. It mentioned the brother advised the FBI Zagala had taught himself pc programming.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; modifying by Grant McCool

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.