US releases Russian hackers in Evan Gershkovich prisoner swap

pppProfileppSectionspptvppFeaturedppMore From NBCppFollow NBC NewsppThere are no new alerts at this timeppIts rare for Russian criminal hackers to land in US prisons and even rarer for them to get out early But two of the eight Russians released in Thursdays prisoner swap with the US are seasoned cybercriminalsppThe decision to release the Russians highlights the steep price the US was willing to pay to free political prisoners held by the Kremlin like Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich It is believed to be the first time the US has released international hackers in a prisoner exchange according to cybercrime experts and a review conducted by NBC NewsppThe two convicted Russian hackers Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznev are in their early 40s Klyushin arrested in 2021 was one of five Russian men accused of an elaborate scheme to hack US companies to learn about earnings reports to beat the stock market Seleznev was one of historys most notorious carders  criminals who hack trade and use stolen credit cards before his arrest in 2014ppInternational cybercrime cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute even among friendly countries Pinning a person to certain actions at a keyboard can be hard to prove in court laws often arent updated to fully capture what a malicious hacker can accomplish and geopolitics can make it an enormous challenge for one country to persuade another to hand a suspect overppTodd Carroll the chief information security officer at the French company CybelAngel and a retired veteran FBI special agent said cybercrime cases required an enormous amount of effort to result in arrestsppIts not only international cooperation but its the extradition its the legalities the filings etc etc etc And then to get your hands actually on somebody and bring them into the United States or bring them to justice in another country Its incredibly complex Carroll said ppCyber has been even more difficult because of the lack of unified laws across the world he saidppI dont want to undercut getting two US citizens back that were wrongly held over there Carroll said Im just not happy about the extremes we have to go to for this to be done ppRussia which hosts one of the most thriving cybercrime ecosystems in the world is particularly tough The countrys constitution prohibits extraditing its citizens which has complicated Western law enforcements efforts to stop cybercriminals like the ransomware hackers who routinely shut down American hospitals for extortion moneyppThe US routinely publicly indicts and sanctions Russian hackers but it can arrest them only if they travel to countries that are willing to work with the US or allied law enforcementppThat was true for the men released Thursday Both were arrested on vacation in countries that cooperate with the US Klyushin was arrested in Sion Switzerland four people alleged to be coconspirators remain at large and Seleznev in MaldivesppPhilip Reiner the CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology a think tank that addresses the geopolitics of technology said Russias economy benefits from how much its cybercriminals bring into the country while the Kremlin can claim it isnt directly hacking AmericansppThe amount that these actors are able to make goes back into an ecosystem where folks get paid and get paid off he said Its not lost on anybody that when Russia may not necessarily want to engage in certain types of activities themselves theyve got this syndicate of actors who will do itppBoth men have connections that may have made them higher priorities for the Kremlin than other criminals Klyushin was a wealthy oligarch and before his arrest had worked for Vladimir Putins office and Seleznev is the son of a seasoned Russian legislatorppKevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity privacy and technology policy for NBC Newspp 2024 NBC UNIVERSALp