The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last week announced the arrest of a 55-year-old Latvian woman whos alleged to have worked as a programmer for Trickbot, a malware-as-a-service platform responsible for infecting millions of computers and seeding many of those systems with ransomware.
Just how did a self-employed web site designer and mother of two come to work for one of the worlds most rapacious cybercriminal groups and then leave such an obvious trail of clues indicating her involvement with the gang? This post explores answers to those questions, as well as some of the ways Trickbot and other organized cybercrime gangs gradually recruit, groom and trust new programmers.