The mastermind of the LockBit group hackers finally has a name and a face

LockBitSupp is the most wanted cybercriminal in the world, except that until recent days, he had neither name nor face. His group, LockBit, and its franchisees are behind more than 7,000 hacks with ransom demands, notably against hospitals in France. But since this week, the head of LockBit is no longer unknown.

According to the FBI, its British equivalent, Europol and the specialized services of the countries concerned – including the National Gendarmerie – the mastermind of LockBit is 31 years old. He is Russian and his name is Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev. His photo is on the front page of the press release issued jointly on Tuesday. Two photos, in reality in which we discover a young man, with a military haircut, arms crossed, looking stern, not to say arrogant, in the first, in a black polo shirt; more smiling, almost mischievous in the second photo, a selfie in a charcoal gray t-shirt with a pair of wireless headphones in his ears.

A ten million dollar challenge

Koroshev was so certain of his cover and anonymity that he promised ten million dollars to anyone who discovered his true identity. The American, British and European authorities took it upon themselves to expose it to the light of day. Their dual objective: to show his lieutenants and other cybercriminals that none of them is safe and to make Dmitry Khoroshev understand that the rest of his life promises to be much less pleasant.

What remains of the LockBit group, however, claims that the authorities were mistaken about the identity of their leader, which is unlikely but it was undoubtedly the only card to play in trying to save the image of the organization in the middle. The other way to continue to exist is action. And even though LockBit was hit hard by Operation Cronos – this international police operation which targeted its servers on February 19 – the hacker group continued to carry out computer attacks. The Simone Veil hospital in Cannes paid the price on April 16 when he found himself partially paralyzed.

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So, what will happen now for Khoroshev, the head of LockBit? Once his identity was revealed, other details emerged: his email addresses and his cryptocurrency accounts. Khoroshev reportedly lives in Voronezh, 400 km south of Moscow, in complete peace and quiet, with a Facebook account, a subscription to the Russian equivalent of Uber Eats and a brand new Mercedes AMG.

It is unlikely that he will be worried by the Russian authorities even if LockBit also targeted victims in Russia, which is extremely rare for cybercriminals. LockBit allegedly extorted $500 million in total, of which $100 million went directly to Khoroshev. In the United States, the procedure against him for a possible trial has already been launched. He theoretically faces 185 years in prison.