Guilty plea entered by Raccoon Infostealer operator

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Ukrainian national Mark Sokolovsky, also known as raccoon-stealer, black21jack77777, and Photix, has admitted guilt in operating the Raccoon Infostealer malware-as-a-service operation, reports BleepingComputer.

More than $910,000 in restitution and $23,975 in forfeiture money judgment were part of the plea deal of Sokolovksy, who had been extradited to the U.S. in February after being charged with money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and fraud.

While Raccoon Infostealer had been dismantled by the FBI as well as Dutch and Italian law enforcement agencies around the time of Sokolovsky's arrest in March 2022, operations of the information-stealing malware have since been revived twice with more advanced data exfiltration features. Using data stolen by Raccoon Infostealer, which included over 50 million unique credentials and more than 4 million email addresses, the FBI was able to establish a website aimed at helping organizations and individuals determine potential compromise with the malware.