Police raid homes of alleged Black Basta hackers, hunt suspected Russian ringleader

Ukrainian and German authorities identified and arrested two suspected Black Basta operators in western Ukraine and named a Russian national, Oleg Nefedov, as the group's alleged leader and placed him on an international wanted list. Black Basta, active since at least 2022, is attributed with extorting hundreds of organizations worldwide (including ABB and Ascension) via credential theft, privilege escalation and ransomware deployment; seized materials and leaked internal chats have revealed operational structure and possible ties to Conti and other criminal malware networks.