Tag Archives: rEvil

Who is Alleged Medibank Hacker Aleksandr Ermakov?

January 26, 2024
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Authorities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States this week levied financial sanctions against a Russian man accused of stealing data on nearly 10 million customers of the Australian health insurance giant Medibank. 33-year-old Aleksandr Ermakov allegedly stole and leaked the Medibank data while working with one of Russia’s most destructive ransomware groups, but little more is shared about the accused. Here’s a closer look at the activities of Mr. Ermakov’s alleged hacker handles.

Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?

January 28, 2022
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In December 2021, researchers discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service named ALPHV (a.k.a. “BlackCat”), considered to be the first professional cybercrime group to create and use a ransomware strain in the Rust programming language. In this post, we’ll explore some of the clues left behind by the developer who was reputedly hired to code the ransomware variant.

At Request of U.S., Russia Rounds Up 14 REvil Ransomware Affiliates

January 14, 2022
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The Russian government said today it arrested 14 people accused of working for “REvil,” a particularly aggressive ransomware group that has extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from victim organizations. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said the actions were taken in response to a request from U.S. officials, but many experts believe the crackdown is part of an effort to reduce tensions over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to station 100,000 troops along the nation’s border with Ukraine.

REvil Ransom Arrest, $6M Seizure, and $10M Reward

November 8, 2021
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The U.S. Department of Justice said today it arrested a Ukrainian man who deployed ransomware on behalf of the REvil ransomware gang, a Russian cybercriminal collective that has extorted hundreds of millions from victim organizations. The DOJ also said it had seized $6.1 million in cryptocurrency sent to another REvil affiliate, and that the State Department is now offering up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of any key leaders of REvil.

Conti Ransom Gang Starts Selling Access to Victims

October 25, 2021
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The Conti ransomware affiliate program appears to have altered its business plan recently. Organizations infected with Conti’s malware who refuse to negotiate a ransom payment are added to Conti’s victim shaming blog, where confidential files stolen from victims may be published or sold. But sometime over the past 48 hours, the cybercriminal syndicate updated its victim shaming blog to indicate that it is now selling access to many of the organizations it has hacked.

Kaseya Left Customer Portal Vulnerable to 2015 Flaw in its Own Software

July 8, 2021
37 Comments

Last week cybercriminals deployed ransomware to 1,500 organizations that provide IT security and technical support to many other companies. The attackers exploited a vulnerability in software from Kaseya, a Miami-based company whose products help system administrators manage large networks remotely. Now it appears Kaseya’s customer service portal was left vulnerable until last week to a data-leaking security flaw that was first identified in the same software six years ago.

Justice Dept. Claws Back $2.3M Paid by Colonial Pipeline to Ransomware Gang

June 7, 2021
238 Comments

The U.S. Department of Justice said today it has recovered $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin that Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware extortionists last month. The funds had been sent to DarkSide, a ransomware-as-a-service syndicate that disbanded after a May 14 farewell message to affiliates saying its Internet servers and cryptocurrency stash were seized by unknown law enforcement entities.

Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate

May 17, 2021
147 Comments

In a Twitter discussion last week on ransomware attacks, KrebsOnSecurity noted that virtually all ransomware strains have a built-in failsafe designed to cover the backsides of the malware purveyors: They simply will not install on a Microsoft Windows computer that already has one of many types of virtual keyboards installed — such as Russian or Ukrainian. So many readers had questions in response to the tweet that I thought it was worth a blog post exploring this one weird cyber defense trick.

DarkSide Ransomware Gang Quits After Servers, Bitcoin Stash Seized

May 14, 2021
210 Comments

The DarkSide ransomware affiliate program responsible for the six-day outage at Colonial Pipeline this week that led to fuel shortages and price spikes across the country is running for the hills. The crime gang announced it was closing up shop after its servers were seized and someone drained funds from an account the group uses to pay affiliates.