A single individual selling stolen network credentials to the right buyers can cause more damage than any ransomware group operating alone and a federal court in Indiana made that arithmetic concrete by sentencing a 26-year-old Russian citizen to 81 months in prison for precisely that role — of being an access broker.

Aleksei Volkov, of St. Petersburg, Russia, was sentenced in the Southern District of Indiana for assisting major cybercrime groups, including the Yanluowang ransomware group, in carrying out numerous attacks against U.S. companies and other organizations. Volkov facilitated dozens of ransomware attacks throughout the United States, causing over $9 million in actual losses and...