Nevada suffered a ransomware attack in August 2025 that caused a significant disruption in services. The attackers deleted the state’s backups, encrypted virtual machines, and deployed ransomware that affected 60 state agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Public Safety, and Motor Vehicles.

Despite the significance of the attack,  Nevada refused to pay

Anecdotally, we know that cybercriminals hailing from Russia are a significant risk to U.S.-based and world companies and governmental entities. With two convicted Russian cybercriminals being released this week in the prisoner swap I was curious just how significant Russian cybercriminals play in cybercrime chaos.

According to Bleeping Computer, “Russian-speaking threat actors accounted