October 12, 2016
Joshua Samuel Aaron, 32, a US citizen suspected of several high-profile hacks, has been detained by Russian authorities since May 2016, after violating the conditions of his visa.
US authorities indicted Aaron and two Israelis in the summer of 2015 on charges of hacking and stealing data from 12 international companies, including nine financial institutions, between 2007 and 2014.
The list of confirmed breached companies includes JPMorgan Chase, Scottrade, The Wall Street Journal, E*Trade Financial Corp, TD Ameritrade, and News Corp.
Aaron’s co-conspirators arrested in Israel in 2015
US authorities said Aaron and the two Israelis used the Heartbleed vulnerability to break into those companies’ servers and steal financial data of over 100 million customers.
A month after US authorities charged the trio, Israeli authorities arrested and extradited the two Israeli suspects, Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein.
According to a Bloomberg report, Aaron escaped US law enforcement after he traveled to the Ukraine in May 2015, and then Russia, two months before US authorities filed official charges.