JOLLY ROGER’S
PATRONS
Group-IB exposes financial crime network of online pirates in developing countries
Background
Online piracy is one of the biggest shadow economy channels. Criminals raise their profits by taking vast sums of money out of people’s pockets and entire economies.
The fight against this disease within the media industry has been ongoing for some 20 years, but it is only recently that the scale of the piracy business has escalated to such a colossal extent. Russian-speaking cybercriminal conglomerates are no longer content with income that comes solely from video content consumers in Russia and other post-Soviet countries. They have started branching out into international markets, mainly in developing countries.
80% of pirate video streaming services
in Russia and other post-Soviet countries are provided with content from CDNs
23% of pirate resources
analyzed during the pandemic posed risks to users
76.8 mln visits
is the total traffic size to dangerous resources in March
Objectives
The purpose of this report is to deliver a devastating blow to cybercrime: to expose the entire structure of online piracy, to uncover the key organizations that sponsor this activity and those behind them. Group-IB’s report contains confidential data, including information on individuals believed to be behind some of the key piracy industry players.
Copies of this report have been provided to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Russian and international law enforcement agencies.
Main topics covered:
- Symbiosis of gambling and pirated online traffic
- Russian-speaking cybercrime in international markets
- Shadow investors in online piracy
- Use of Russian banks and international payment systems in criminal schemes
- Evasion of technical blocking and lawful prosecution
- Exploitation of legal hosting services’ capacities
- Taking advantage of geopolitical tensions
The size of the Russian video piracy market
Download the report “Jolly Roger’s Patrons. Group-IB exposes financial crime network of online pirates in developing countries"
Group-IB research on targeted attack groups
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2020/2021
Source of strategic data on the global cyber threat landscape and forecasts for its development
UltraRank: the unexpected twist of a JS-sniffer triple threat
New stage in JS-sniffers research. From analyzing malware families to identifying threat actors. For five years, the cybercriminal group UltraRank has conducted campaigns using JS-sniffers and managed to stay unnoticed for the most part.
RedCurl: The pentest
you didn’t know about
Research of the new espionage APT-group RedCurl and its elaborate attacks on enterprise companies in North America, Europe and CIS.
Fxmsp: “The invisible god of networks”
The evolution of Fxmsp — one of the most notorious and prolific sellers of access to corporate networks on underground forums. Group-IB researchers analyzed Fxmsp’s activity on underground forums for three years and discovered that the threat actor had compromised networks of more than 130 targets.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2019/20
Strategic intelligence data on state-sponsored groups, industry-specific cyberthreats, targeted attacks on banks and banking clients.
Attacks by Silence
A comprehensive technical analysis of Silence’s tools, tactics, and evolution. This is the first time Group‑IB’s reports of this kind have been made publicly available.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2018
Introducing the research on cybersecurity trends and predictions for the next year. Plan your cybersecurity strategy effectively.
Crime without punishment: in-depth analysis of JS-sniffers
In-depth analysis and new types of a growing threat — JS‑sniffers — designed to steal payment data.
2018 Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Estimation of the number of login and passwords leaks of cryptoсurrency exchanges users and analysis their nature. Recommendations for ensuring security of users and exchanges.
Cobalt: their evolution and joint operations
Learn about Cobalt’s development and modification of tools and tactics which were used to steal approximately 1 billion dollars from over 100 banks in 40 different countries.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2017
Introducing the research on cybersecurity trends and predictions for the next year. Plan your cybersecurity strategy effectively.
Lazarus Arisen: Architecture, Techniques and Attribution
Lazarus group targets the largest international banks as well as central banks in various countries.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2016
Learn about the evolution of cyber crime in 2016 and find out what predictions for 2017 came true. Spoiler: most of them did.
MoneyTaker
This hacker group is noticeable for 1.5 years of silent operations and multiple attacks. They still pose a threat: learn about MoneyTaker techniques and indicators of compromise now.
Buhtrap
From August 2015 to February 2016 Buhtrap managed to conduct 13 successful attacks against Russian banks for a total amount of 1.8 billion rubles ($25 mln.
Analysis of attacks against trading and bank card system
Group-IB annual report on speculative fluctuations of exchange rate and other incidents in 2015 caused by the Trojan program Corkow (Metel).
Anunak: APT against financial institutions
This research includes the findings of Group-IB and Fox‑IT on Anunak (Carbanak) group, which focused its activity on banks and electronic payment systems.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2020/2021
Source of strategic data on the global cyber threat landscape and forecasts for its development
UltraRank: the unexpected twist of a JS-sniffer triple threat
New stage in JS-sniffers research. From analyzing malware families to identifying threat actors. For five years, the cybercriminal group UltraRank has conducted campaigns using JS-sniffers and managed to stay unnoticed for the most part.
RedCurl: The pentest
you didn’t know about
Research of the new espionage APT-group RedCurl and its elaborate attacks on enterprise companies in North America, Europe and CIS.
Fxmsp: “The invisible god of networks”
The evolution of Fxmsp — one of the most notorious and prolific sellers of access to corporate networks on underground forums. Group-IB researchers analyzed Fxmsp’s activity on underground forums for three years and discovered that the threat actor had compromised networks of more than 130 targets.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2019/20
Strategic intelligence data on state-sponsored groups, industry-specific cyberthreats, targeted attacks on banks and banking clients.
Attacks by Silence
A comprehensive technical analysis of Silence’s tools, tactics, and evolution. This is the first time Group‑IB’s reports of this kind have been made publicly available.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2018
Introducing the research on cybersecurity trends and predictions for the next year. Plan your cybersecurity strategy effectively.
Crime without punishment: in-depth analysis of JS-sniffers
In-depth analysis and new types of a growing threat — JS‑sniffers — designed to steal payment data.
2018 Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Estimation of the number of login and passwords leaks of cryptoсurrency exchanges users and analysis their nature. Recommendations for ensuring security of users and exchanges.
Cobalt: their evolution and joint operations
Learn about Cobalt’s development and modification of tools and tactics which were used to steal approximately 1 billion dollars from over 100 banks in 40 different countries.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2017
Introducing the research on cybersecurity trends and predictions for the next year. Plan your cybersecurity strategy effectively.
Lazarus Arisen: Architecture, Techniques and Attribution
Lazarus group targets the largest international banks as well as central banks in various countries.
Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2016
Learn about the evolution of cyber crime in 2016 and find out what predictions for 2017 came true. Spoiler: most of them did.
MoneyTaker
This hacker group is noticeable for 1.5 years of silent operations and multiple attacks. They still pose a threat: learn about MoneyTaker techniques and indicators of compromise now.
Buhtrap
From August 2015 to February 2016 Buhtrap managed to conduct 13 successful attacks against Russian banks for a total amount of 1.8 billion rubles ($25 mln.
Analysis of attacks against trading and bank card system
Group-IB annual report on speculative fluctuations of exchange rate and other incidents in 2015 caused by the Trojan program Corkow (Metel).
Anunak: APT against financial institutions
This research includes the findings of Group-IB and Fox‑IT on Anunak (Carbanak) group, which focused its activity on banks and electronic payment systems.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Thank you for your interest in our research.
Please fill in the form below and we will send you the Group-IB report. Please make sure to correctly fill in all fields, we will only provide materials on provision of a valid corporate email address.
Advanced protection against cyber threats
Group-IB’s security ecosystem provides comprehensive protection for your IT infrastructure based on our unique cyber intelligence and deep analysis of attacks and incident response.
Threat
Intelligence
Intelligence
Аctionable, finished intelligence to track actors and prevent attacks before they happen
Threat Hunting Framework
Comprehensive solution to protect corporate network, hunt for threats and respond to even the most complex cyber attacks
Fraud Hunting Platform
Client-side fraud and attack prevention system for online banking, working across sessions, platforms and devices
Fraud Hunting Platform
Protection from bots, fraud and data leakage for e‑commerce and web portals