U.S. charges Venezuelan doctor with selling ransomware used by Iranian group

By Luc Cohen

NEWYORK – A Venezuelan heart specialist who taught himself pc programming offered software program that was utilized by an Iranian hacking group to assault Israeli corporations, U.S. prosecutors stated on Monday in bringing prison costs towards him.

Moises Zagala, 55, licensed his software program to cybercriminals who deployed it to extort victims for cash, based on a grievance filed in federal court docket in Brooklyn, New York.

Zagala marketed his Jigsaw v. 2 software on a web based discussion board for $500, and provided to promote the underlying supply code for $3,000, the grievance stated.

Breon Peace, the U.S. Lawyer for the Japanese District of New York stated in a press release that Zagala bragged about profitable assaults utilizing his applications, “together with by malicious actors related to the federal government of Iran.”

Zagala faces two counts of tried pc intrusions and conspiracy to commit pc intrusions. He lives in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, and has not been arrested by U.S. authorities. A message Reuters despatched to an Instagram account for Zagala’s clinic in Ciudad Bolivar was not instantly returned.

In late 2019, he began providing one other product, Thanos, to hackers in trade for some income from their ransomware assaults, based on the grievance, which was written by FBI agent Chris Clark. Clark purchased a license for this system and downloaded it to a pc in america.

Zagala in 2020 posted hyperlinks on a message board to information articles in Russian about an Iranian hacking group, MuddyWater, that used Thanos software program to focus on Israeli organizations, Clark stated.

U.S. authorities in February described MuddyWater as a bunch of Iran-linked cyber operators and stated it had focused a spread of presidency and private-sector organizations throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Iran’s mission to the United Nations referred to as the allegations “baseless.”

A few of Zagala’s shoppers had been directed to make funds to a PayPal account registered to his brother in Florida, the court docket doc stated. It stated the brother informed the FBI Zagala had taught himself pc programming.