A cybercrime group referred to as The Gents has emerged because the second most lively ransomware gang by sufferer rely, quickly attracting a gifted pool of hackers via an aggressive recruitment technique that guarantees associates 90 % of any ransom paid by victims. This submit examines clues pointing to an actual life id for the administrator of The Gents ransomware group.
A graphic created and shared by The Gents ransomware group administrator Hastalamuerte on Breachforums in Might 2026. Credit score: ke-la.com.
Consultants on the safety agency Verify Level Software program have been carefully overlaying exploits of The Gents, a so-called “ransomware-as-a-service” (RaaS) providing that pays associates handsomely to assist unfold the group’s malware.
“A 90/10 affiliate income cut up — in comparison with the trade commonplace 80/20 — is accelerating the group’s development by attracting skilled operators from competing packages,” the researchers wrote in April.
Verify Level discovered The Gents are the second most lively ransomware group by sufferer rely up to now this yr, claiming not less than 332 printed victims for the reason that group’s inception in mid-2025 and greater than 240 in 2026 alone.
Based on Verify Level, the group targets Web-facing gadgets (VPNs, firewalls) as their entry level, and as soon as inside strikes shortly to encrypt whole networks inside hours.
Verify Level says the administrator and first operator of the ransomware group makes use of the nickname Zeta88 on the Russian-language cybercrime boards, and that this particular person was beforehand identified underneath the moniker Hastalamuerte. Verify Level famous that a breach of the group’s backend infrastructure made it clear that Hastalamuerte/Zeta88 is the one who assembles the locker and RaaS panel, manages funds, and is actually the administrator of the complete program who receives 10 % of all ransoms.
WHO IS HASTALAMUERTE?
The cyber intelligence agency Intel 471 exhibits that the person Hastalamuerte is a Russian and English talking one that registered on virtually a dozen cybercrime boards between 2019 and the current day, together with Exploit, Breachforums, Ramp_V2, BHF, Raidforums, and Nulled.
Intel 471 reveals that Hastalamuerte registered on Breachforums in January 2025 from an Web handle in Izhevsk, the capital metropolis of Russia’s Udmurt Republic. Likewise, the person Zeta88 signed up on the English-language cybercrime discussion board Breached in August 2022 from a distinct Web handle in Izhevsk.
Intel 471 finds Hastalamuerte registered on Raidforums in 2020 utilizing the e-mail handle hastalamuerte1488@protonmail.com (1488 is a typical mixture of two numeric symbols related to white supremacy). A lookup on this handle on the open supply intelligence service Epieos exhibits it’s linked to an account at Apple and to a cellphone quantity ending in 04.
Epieos says that Protonmail handle can also be linked to a GitHub account underneath the username SantaMuerte. That account is marked non-public, however a historical past of this person’s exercise exhibits they’re watching and creating a variety of malware instruments and exploits.
In April 2020, Hastalamuerte mentioned on the crime discussion board Nulled that they could possibly be contacted on the Telegram prompt messenger identify @hastalamuerte18, and the risk intelligence firm Flashpoint finds this username is assigned the distinctive Telegram ID quantity 30907522 [full disclosure: Flashpoint is an advertiser on this blog].
The breach monitoring service Constella Intelligence stories that Hastalamuerte’s Telegram ID is linked to a different username — “bu4vs” — and to the Russian cellphone quantity 79127650004. Pivoting on this cellphone quantity in Constella fetches a number of information from hacked Russian authorities databases exhibiting it’s assigned to 1 Alexander Andreevich Yapaev, a 36-year-old from Izhevsk.
Constella reveals that cellphone quantity was used to create an account on the Russian social media platform Pikabu underneath the identify “4apai18,” and exhibits Mr. Yapaev has signed up at a variety of web sites utilizing the widespread surname Ivanov, or else “Chapaev” (the numeral 4 is usually used as shorthand for a “ch” sound in Russian).
A search in Intel 471 for cybercrime discussion board members with the nickname SantaMeurte reveals an account by the identical identify created in 2020 on the Russian hacking discussion board Codeby. Intel 471 exhibits this person initially registered on Codeby with the not-so-subtle nickname Alexandr 4apaev.
Constella finds Mr. Yapaev recurrently used the e-mail handle bu4vs@mail.ru. In the meantime, Epieos exhibits this handle is linked to a LinkedIn account for Alexander Yapaev, who lists himself as the top of B2B advertising and marketing on the firm Uralenergo Udmurtia, one in every of Russia’s largest suppliers of electrotechnical and lighting merchandise.
Mr. Yapaev didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Almost each time we publish one in every of these Breadcrumbs tales, readers are curious to know why it looks as if so many cybercriminals from Russia apparently do little to cover their actual life identities. The reality is that — Russian or not — most didn’t precisely got down to be arch criminals, however as an alternative obtained drawn into the scene progressively over a number of years as their expertise broadened and sharpened.
One other necessary dynamic is that the Russian authorities usually both co-opts or ignores cybercriminal exercise inside its border as long as the hackers don’t steal from or assault Russian companies and residents. Consequently, profitable cybercriminals in Russia are normally insulated from prosecution and arrest by international regulation enforcement companies supplied they often repay the best folks and don’t journey overseas. And cybercriminals who intend to strictly adhere to these unwritten guidelines could (not less than initially) be much less involved about overlaying their tracks on-line.
However the easiest clarification is that cybercriminals of all nationalities are inclined to make a variety of fundamental operational safety errors early of their careers, when they’re much less savvy and have far much less to lose by their carelessness. A overview of Hastalamuerte’s early posts on the crime boards (circa 2019-2020) exhibits a comparatively unsophisticated and low-skilled hacker nonetheless making an attempt to be taught the ropes and earn a optimistic status on these communities.
For instance, in June 2020 Hastalamuerte’s Telegram account joined a multi-month coaching program (@pntst) to discover ways to use well-liked penetration testing instruments, and their candid posts to this hacker coaching camp present Hastalamuerte struggling to make use of these instruments successfully. A Google-translated file of Hastalmuerte’s posts to @pntst is right here.
