Dr. Ransomware, Part 2

Is a practicing cardiologist living in Venezuela also a ransomware mastermind? If U.S. prosecutors are to be believed, Moises Luis Zagala Gonzalez is a cybercriminal polymath. He’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for cybercrime, but people who know him say the accusations cannot be true. Zagala is charged in federal court in New York with developing ransomware applications called Jigsaw and Thanos that infected organizations and companies around the word. But Zagala’s wife says there’s a reason for her husband’s predicament. How does the evidence stack up against her claim?

Speakers: Alexander Mindlin, Assistant United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York; Thomas Holt, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University; Anthony Martino, Director, Northeast Cyber Security Forensics Center, Utica University; Ana Vanessa Herrero, Journalist; Jeremy Kirk, Executive Editor, Information Security Media Group.

Sources and transcript for this episode are here.

Special thanks to Ana Vanessa Herrero in Caracas for reporting and research that contributed to this episode. Thanks also to ISMG’s Tom Field, David Perera, Alexandra Perez, Mathew Schwartz and Anna Delaney for production assistance. Thank you to Intel471 for sharing cybercrime intelligence useful for this episode.

Production Coordinator: Rashmi Ramesh

The Ransomware Files theme song by Chris Gilbert/©Ordinary Weirdos Records

Other original music by Chris Gilbert, Finley Kirk and Jeremy Kirk

Additional music by Podcastmusic.com and Uppbeat.io

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