198/68 Friday, May 30, 2025
A U.S. court has obtained a guilty plea from Sina Gholinejad, an Iranian national, for his role in the Robbinhood ransomware attacks that severely disrupted city systems in Baltimore and Greenville, United States. The attack caused over $19 million in damages in Baltimore alone, crippling key public services such as water billing, property tax payments, and traffic citation systems beginning in May 2019.
Gholinejad and his co-conspirators infiltrated the networks of government agencies, healthcare organizations, and private businesses across the U.S. starting in 2019. They stole data and deployed the Robbinhood ransomware to demand ransoms in Bitcoin. The group also engaged in money laundering through crypto mixers and chain-hopping techniques, while using VPNs and private servers to evade detection.
Gholinejad was apprehended in the U.S. and pleaded guilty to computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, crimes that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for August 2025. The U.S. Department of Justice emphasized that the case highlights the serious cyber threat to public infrastructure, stating that “there will be no safe haven for cybercriminals, even those operating from abroad.” The FBI reaffirmed its global capability to track down and bring cyber offenders to justice.
Source https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/iranian-hacker-pleads-guilty-in-19.html
