# US indicts Russian national over freelancer malware campaign

_Published Wednesday, September 2, 2026 at 7:07 AM EDT · Security · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![US indicts Russian national over freelancer malware campaign — Primary](https://www.bleepstatic.com/content/hl-images/2026/07/13/Russian__hacker.jpg)

A California federal grand jury has indicted Russian national Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev over a phishing campaign that allegedly used 255 fake accounts to send malicious Excel attachments to 80,000 freelancers in 2016 and 2017. Court documents say the attachments installed TVRAT or DarkVNC malware, giving operators remote control and enabling data theft. Aktulaev was extradited from Cyprus and is in federal custody. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

## Sources

- [BleepingComputer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-russian-for-infecting-80-000-freelancers-with-malware/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/bslcprNRa5LiLFCdXUbIlc
Published: 2026-09-02T11:07:11.388Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-02T09:06:48.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-18T07:04:26.800Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)