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2023 was a year of high-profile arrests, raids, sanctions and prison sentences for some of the most vocal cybercriminals.
In this article we go back in time to a year full of developments in this sector recalling dangerous groups and gangs of a highly dynamic online world.
Once upon a time, Joseph James O'Connor was one of the most wanted hackers in the world, not only by the authorities but also by the curious public who watched his hacks being executed in real time.
O'Connor was a member of a group of hackers who broke into the Twitter social network and abused internal administration tools and hacked high-profile Twitter accounts such as Apple, Joe Biden and Elon Musk by spreading a hoax.
Twitter took drastic measures to remove hackers from its network by temporarily blocking 200 million users from posting.
A New York judge sentenced the 24-year-old to 5 years in prison, two of which O'Connor has served in custody.
Federal prosecutors in the US this year charged a former Amazon employee with hacking a crypto exchange and stealing millions of dollars from its customers. The case in the foreground resembled an ethical hacker who had abandoned his principles by promising to return the funds in exchange for a reward.
But Shakeeb Ahmed was eventually caught and pleaded guilty in early December, according to the Department of Justice, and faces up to 5 years in prison and $5 million in restitution to victims.
Why did a Russian citizen accused by US prosecutors of ransomware attacks decide to burn his passport? According to the accused hacker, Mikhail Matveev, he did this because the US government could extradite him wherever he was hiding.
Prosecutors say Matveev is a central figure in the development and implementation of the Hive, LockBit and Babuk ransomware variants that have cost users and businesses millions of dollars in losses. Matveev is believed to be living in the Russian enclave of Kalingrad where he remains in hiding from the authorities.
The dictatorial country's hackers had quite a busy agenda during 2023 as they hit cryptocurrency wallets and major crypto projects with the sole aim of stealing money on behalf of the regime and funding its sanctioned nuclear program.
Some of the attacks were not directly related to the crypto companies but were just the bait they would use to reach the end goal. 3CX said North Korean hackers breached its systems and planted malware in a software update meant for its crypto customers.
Software company JumpCloud said it was also hacked, an attempt by hackers to gather information about crypto consumers.
It took authorities more than a decade, but their work finally paid off as they identified the mastermind of Try2Check, a credit card screening operation that allowed cybercriminals to buy credit card numbers to identify which ones were still active. This scheme netted Russian national Denis Gennadievich Kulkov $18 million but also secured him a spot on the US's most wanted list, which offers $10 million for any information about him.
Kulkov remains in Russia away from the hands of American prosecutors.
One of the high-profile hackers and sellers of stolen data, BreachForums forum administrator known as Pompopurin, was arrested by the FBI in New York.
BreachForums sold the data of millions of people and had over 340,000 active members. So powerful was this network that the Department of Justice sought its downfall. The operation led to the arrest of 20-year-old Conor Brian Fitzpatrick. In the end his arrest came not only because of computer crimes but also because of his involvement in child abuse. Fitzpatrick has pleaded guilty and his sentencing is expected at a later date.
Qakbot was one of the longest-running and most high-profile hacking groups of the last decade and serves as the primary ransomware infection route for companies, organizations and governments around the world.
At its peak, Qakbot had 700,000 devices, 200,000 of which were hacked in the US. The FBI launched Operation Duck Hunt by manipulating Qakbot devices into downloading an FBI-designed uninstaller and removing the malware from them.
The operation was considered a great success but recent Qakbot infections suggest it is far from over.
A hacker accused of being involved in the group Lapsus$ will be kept under the supervision of doctors until they say he is no longer a danger.
It is about the Albanian Arion Kurtaj, a teenager from Oxford, who was sentenced to an indefinite stay in the hospital in December. Kurtaj was one of the hackers who hit Rockstar Games, Uber, Nvidia and British telecommunications giant EE. /PCWorld Albanian
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