FBI Apprehends & Charges Russian Hacker, Closes Down Deer.io Platform

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged a Russian hacker for stealing private information, and has shut down his platform — Deer.io, which moved funds via crypto assets.

The FBI shut down the Deer platform on March 24, as per a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ). The platform’s “suspected administrator – alleged Russian hacker Kirill Victorovich Firsov - was arrested and charged with crimes related to the hacking of U.S. companies for customers’ personal information,” the DoJ noted.

The FBI detained the alleged infiltrator weeks ago

The FBI took Firsov into custody on March 7 while at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. The Russian allegedly ran Deer.io, a platform spun up in 2013, touting the sale of various types of hijacked data.

The operation boasted 24,000 online vendors, hitting more than $17 million in sales.

It is unclear whether or not the platform was still up and running between the March 7 arrest, and the March 24 shut down statement from the DoJ.

Cointelegraph reached out to the FBI for additional details, but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.

Firsov pushed a web of activity

The Russian mastermind allegedly made his operation known around the internet. “Firsov not only managed the Deer.io platform, he also advertised it on other cyber forums, which catered to hackers,” the DoJ statement explained. “Firsov is next scheduled to appear on April 16, 2020, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison H. Goddard.”

Firsov’s platform was massive, according to Omer Meisel, FBI Special Agent in Charge. “Deer.io was the largest centralized platform, which promoted and facilitated the sale of compromised social media and financial accounts, personally identifiable information (PII) and hacked computers on the internet,” Meisel said in the statement.

The crypto space has seen no shortage of crime over the past decade. A recent report also shows hackers using the current coronavirus situation as a floor for further deception.