Shortly after it was announced that the FBI had “seized several websites” operated by a ransomware group, the hackers claimed to have regained control.
The FBI reportedly secretly monitored the ransomware gangs' operations for months and was able to help 500 victims recover their files without making a payment. But on Tuesday, a group of hackers announced that they had “taken down” their data-leaking site.
“Over the past 18 months, ALPHV/Blackcat has become the second most prolific ransomware variant in the world based on the hundreds of millions of dollars in ransoms paid by victims around the world. Due to global scale of these crimes, multiple foreign law enforcement agencies are conducting parallel investigations,” the Justice Department noted in a Press release.
“The FBI developed a decryption tool that allowed FBI field offices across the country and law enforcement partners around the world to provide more than 500 affected victims the ability to restore their system,” the press release continued, adding that the FBI “has also gained visibility.” into the Blackcat ransomware group's computer network as part of the investigation and seized several websites the group operated.”
“By disrupting the BlackCat ransomware group, the Department of Justice has struck back at hackers,” said Assistant Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “With a decryption tool provided by the FBI to hundreds of ransomware victims around the world, businesses and schools were able to reopen and health and emergency services were able to come back online. We will continue to prioritize disruptions and putting victims at the center of our strategy to dismantle the ecosystem that fuels cybercrime.”
Justice Department disrupts prolific ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware variant
FBI offers decryption tool to more than 500 victims worldwide, additional victims encouraged to come forwardhttps://t.co/E7rBGpTZjS pic.twitter.com/8ToTss8As6
— Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) December 19, 2023
“Criminal actors should be aware that today's announcement is only one part of this ongoing effort. Going forward, we will continue our investigation and pursue those behind Blackcat until they are brought to justice.” , the DOJ continued.
“During this investigation, law enforcement gained visibility into the Blackcat Ransomware group's network,” seconds to an unsealed search warrant.
“As a result, the FBI identified and collected 946 public/private key pairs for Tor sites that the Blackcat Ransomware Group used to host victim communication sites, leak sites, and affiliate panels such as those described previously,” he continued. “The FBI has saved these public/private key pairs to the flash drive.”
But ALPHV announced that the FBI “only had access to the decryption keys in the last month and a half, which is about 400 companies. However, they said now 3,000 more victims will lose their keys.” seconds to a BleepingComputer report.
“Because of their actions, we are introducing new rules, or rather removing ALL the rules except one, you can't touch the CIS, now you can block hospitals, nuclear power plants, anything, anywhere,” the group said in an “automatically translated statement”.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida, where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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