29-Year-Old Ukrainian Cryptojacking Kingpin Arrested for Exploiting Cloud Services

A 29-year-old Ukrainian national was arrested for allegedly running a sophisticated cryptojacking operation that used compromised cloud accounts and custom brute-force tools to infiltrate approximately 1,500 accounts of a US company, spin up more than one million virtual machines, and mine cryptocurrency—netting over $2 million. The takedown resulted from collaboration between a cloud provider, Europol and Ukrainian Cyber Police, and the report outlines common cloud cryptojacking TTPs including credential compromise and privilege escalation.