Thanks for participating on the call. My name is David Rybicki. I am a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in
the Criminal Division here at the Department of Justice and I supervise the
Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section.
Today marks a significant step in the battle against
transnational cybercrime.
A federal grand jury in the District of Nevada has returned
an indictment, unsealed today, against 36 cybercriminals from the United States
and 17 countries on five continents who participated in a transnational
racketeering enterprise via an internet forum called “Infraud.”
Members of the Infraud Organization used the forum to
coordinate and conduct online criminal activities that included identity theft,
bank fraud, wire fraud and computer crimes.
Coordinated with the unsealing of the indictment today, U.S. Department
of Homeland Security agents across the country and our law enforcement
counterparts in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Kosovo, Serbia
and Albania have conducted operations that have resulted in the arrest of 13
members of the Infraud Organization.
Operating under the slogan “In Fraud We Trust,” members of
the Infraud Organization used the online forum to purchase and sell stolen
credit card numbers, financial information, social security numbers, passwords
and other personally identifying information; they advertised services that
facilitated these activities and related, illicit financial transactions; and
they disseminated malware.
Infraud was truly the premier one-stop shop for
cybercriminals worldwide.
Over the course of the Infraud Organization’s seven-year
history, its members targeted more than 4.3 million credit cards, debit cards
and bank accounts held by individuals around the world and in all 50 states.
The actions of the Infraud Organization resulted in
approximately $2.2 billion in intended losses and over $530 million in actual
losses to U.S. financial institutions, merchants and consumers. That makes this case one of the largest cyber
fraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice.
This case reflects the alarming and increasing threat posed
by cybercrime. A recent report predicts
that the annual cost of global cybercrime will exceed $2 trillion by 2019, four
times the 2015 estimate. Those
staggering numbers demonstrate why addressing this growing danger is among the
Department’s top priorities.
Like most organized transnational criminal enterprises,
Infraud’s members had defined roles within the organization’s hierarchy. But unlike the organized crime of years past,
many of the organization’s nearly 11,000 members have never met in person and
do not know the true identities of their co-conspirators — they know each other
only by their online user names and other anonymized identifiers. Infraud members used the forum’s private
message threads, digital currency escrow services, VPNs, and other anonymizing
software, to keep it that way.
But as today’s announcement demonstrates, the Department of
Justice refuses to allow cybercriminals to hide behind the anonymity of the web
while stealing personally identifying information, emptying bank accounts, and
wreaking havoc on our nation’s digital infrastructure and financial
system. We aggressively investigate,
indict, and when possible, prosecute the cybercriminals responsible for such
brazen attacks. The charges and arrests
announced today are a victory for the rule of law.
Long-term success in the fight against global cybercrime —
not only against groups like Infraud, but also cybercriminals who flock to dark
web markets for child pornography, human trafficking, illegal drugs, firearms
and narcotics — requires that we systematically address the many challenges
posed by cybercrime. Cybercriminals
consistently seek new ways to abuse and exploit developing technologies. But the dedicated professionals at the
Department of Justice are equally hard at work ensuring that we have the
ability to effectively investigate and prosecute these cybercriminals, as well
as to conduct outreach to the cybersecurity community and to advocate for
legislative change, when necessary.
While we continue to use all lawful tools available to identify,
apprehend and prosecute cybercriminals, at the same time we are also working
toward a comprehensive cybercrime strategy.
As you have heard today, law enforcement across the globe
acted swiftly to take Infraud’s cybercriminals off the Internet. This case is the result of the outstanding
work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security
Investigations; the Henderson, Nevada, Police Department; the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the District of Nevada; the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and
Gang Section; our foreign law enforcement counterparts; and the Criminal
Division’s Office of International Affairs.
On behalf of the Department, I thank them for their efforts
in this case and for their daily work to curb the threats posed to our citizens
by transnational criminal enterprises like the Infraud Organization.
And with that I’ll turn it over to U.S. Attorney
Elieson.
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