ATLANTA, Ga – The Atlanta U.S. Attorney’s office has formed a new cybercrime unit after two Nigerian nationals were arraigned in connection with a series of alleged phishing scams.
U.S. Attorney John Horn made the announcement after Damilola Solomon Ibiwoye and Olayinka Olaniyi, who were living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were extradited to the U.S. and arraigned in federal court in Atlanta last week.
Ibiwoye and Olaniyi have been implicated in scams that targeted colleges and universities across the country, including Georgia Tech.
The new unit is designed to combat hacks into private networks, thefts of proprietary data, malware that harvests personal financial information and logins, and illicit marketplaces on the “darknet.”
The cyber unit will operate within the office’s Financial Fraud & Cyber Crime Section and will be staffed with five federal prosecutors.
Ibiwoye’s and Olaniyi’s indictments allege they sent fraudulent emails from legitimate-sounding enterprises to acquire personal information, including usernames and passwords, and then used that information to change direct deposit payroll information.
The pair is charged with allegedly stealing more than $1 million from over 25 U.S. colleges.
