Russian Hackers Identified In Connection With Target Customer Credit And Debit Card Account Breach

Rinat Shabayev and Sergey Tarasov

At least four Russian hackers involved in BlackPos malware creation and its spread.

By H. Nelson Goodson

January 21, 2014

Russia - The Los Angeles cyber security company IntelCrawler reported that it trace the cyber BlackPos/Haptoxa (Potatoe) malware attack of the Minneapolis based Target customer credit and debit card data breach to Russian hacker Rinat Shabayev, 23, aka, "Ree4," of Saratov and his alleged technical assistant Sergey Tarasov, 17, of Novosibirsk.
Shabayev told Life News in Russia that he created the malware BlackPos and that other friends (hackers) added code features to it. At least, 40 versions of the malware were sold to cybercriminals in Europe and other countries.
Tarasov has denied his involvement and has sought legal advise after his mother got sick when a news report named him as an accomplice to the Target data breach, according to a Russian newspaper.
Shabayev admitted that he was aware of his malware that was originally created to test security systems could be used by cybercriminals to gain access to retail stores systems. 
The BlackPos malware might be also linked to the recent attack of the Neiman Marcus attack, according to IntelCrawler.