Maksim Yakubets
The Russian behind Evil Corp and the Dridex banking trojan, with a five-million-dollar bounty on his head.
According to US prosecutors, Maksim Yakubets, alias "aqua", started out in the circle around the Zeus trojan and went on to build Evil Corp. The group's Dridex malware stole online banking credentials and drained accounts in more than forty countries, with losses above $100 million.
In December 2019 he was indicted in the US and sanctioned by the Treasury, which also claimed he had worked for Russia's FSB. The $5 million reward was then the largest ever offered for a cybercriminal. Evil Corp responded by pivoting to ransomware such as BitPaymer and WastedLocker. The sanctions had a side effect: victims who pay Evil Corp a ransom may themselves be breaking US law. Footage of Yakubets driving a Lamborghini with a plate reading "Thief" did little to make him harder to identify.