Fin7 sysadmin pleads guilty to hacking

In a US court, a system administrator tied to the infamous Fin7 cybercrime ring has pleaded guilty to computer hacking and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Ukrainian national Fedir Oleksiyovich Hladyr has pleaded guilty to being Fin7’s sysadmin in charge of the group’s IT operations.

Hladyr was one of three alleged high-ranking Fin7 members arrested in Europe in August last year and extradited to the US during a global enforcement action that was aided by Australian authorities.

Hladyr has taken a plea agreement reducing the original 26 felony charges down to just two — conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer crime.

These charges still carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and fines of up to US$500,000.

Hladyr had originally joined Fin7’s front company, Naked Security, thinking it was the legitimate penetration testing company it was presented as.

But US authorities alleged that Hladyr quickly realised that Naked Security was not legitimate, and that one of his first duties was to provide Fin7 members with access to communications and command and control servers for carrying out their attacks.

The Fin7 hacking group, operating under the guise of Naked Security, attacked more than 100 US companies with a highly sophisticated malware campaign aimed at ultimately stealing customer credit and debit card numbers.

Fin7 mainly concentrated on companies in the restaurant, gaming and hospitality sectors, including high-profile attacks on major retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Leo Lintang