Summary：**US Shuts Down Russian Bulletproof Hosts, Halting $62M Cybercrime Onslaught** *U.S. prosecutors ch

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**US Shuts Down Russian Bulletproof Hosts, Halting $62M Cybercrime Onslaught**
*U.S. prosecutors charge three Russians and two hosting firms in a sprawling scheme that fueled ransomware, data‑theft and fraud attacks on American companies.*

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### Introduction
Federal authorities announced Tuesday that they have seized infrastructure linked to two “bulletproof” web‑hosting services and filed criminal charges against five individuals accused of enabling cyberattacks that caused an estimated $62 million in losses to U.S. businesses. The indictment, unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia, names three Russian nationals—Alexei Morozov, Dmitry Sokolov and Irina Petrova—as the alleged operators of the hosting platforms, while the two companies, HostShield LLC and NetGuard Inc., are charged as corporate entities.

### Key Developments
Investigators say the defendants provided servers that deliberately ignored abuse complaints, allowing ransomware gangs, credential‑stuffing crews and botnet operators to launch attacks with little fear of takedown. Court documents detail how the hosts leased IP addresses in jurisdictions with weak cooperation treaties, used false registration data, and rotated domains every 48 hours to evade detection.

The charges include:

* **Conspiracy to commit wire fraud** – allegedly facilitating the transfer of illicit proceeds from ransom payments.
* **Aggravated identity theft** – for harvesting personal data sold on dark‑web markets.
* **Money laundering** – moving cryptocurrency proceeds through a series of mixers and offshore