Top Russian official cites REvil arrests as sign of cooperation, says Moscow is awaiting reciprocation

The Russian government’s Jan. 14 takedown of suspects associated with the notorious REvil ransomware group was an example of increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Russian governments on cybersecurity matters, a top Russian official said Friday, but the Russian government is still waiting for U.S. reciprocation on its own cyber requests. In a wide-ranging interview, Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and prime minister of Russia and currently the deputy secretary of the country’s Security Council, called the REvil arrests a “joint operation” and “perhaps one of the few areas where, despite very problematic relations with the United States, our cooperation has intensified.” Nevertheless, he added, the Russian government is waiting for definitive answers on what the Russian government considers distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on components of its remote election infrastructure during the September 2021 State Duma elections. The U.S. government has rebutted any notion of outside interference in those elections. […]

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Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?

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. Continue reading Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?

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

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

Husband and wife among ransomware operators arrested in Ukraine

By Waqas
Gang of five arrested in Ukraine for their involvement in large-scale ransomware attacks on international firms costing millions…
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Russia’s FSB announces sting against members of REvil cybercrime gang

The Russian government said Friday that it raided multiple addresses tied to members of the REvil ransomware gang, making arrests and seizing hard cash, cryptocurrency, computers and cars. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it executed the sting at locations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and elsewhere. The operation came at the request of the United States, the FSB said. The FBI did not immediately respond Friday morning to requests for comment. “Representatives of the competent US authorities were informed about the results of the operation,” the FSB said, according to a translation of its news release. The U.S. has reportedly passed along to Russia the names of hackers within its borders who have been behind active attacks on America, hoping it would lead to a Russian crackdown. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last summer that his country had agreed to enter into “consultations” on cybersecurity with the U.S., but […]

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Offense will win some battles, but cyber defense will win the war

We are years into a ransomware epidemic with no clear end in sight.  Policymakers and security researchers are now using combative efforts to “impose cost” on hackers. Sanctions, hacking back, infrastructure disruption, indictments and other offensive activities all have a negative impact on cybercriminals.  But to have real, long-term impact on these nefarious activities, organizations and governments need to more actively consider the ways that defense can impose costs too: Robust, consistent and well-funded cyber defenses cost adversaries time, effort and the likelihood of success. Defense, and investment in mandatory cybersecurity requirements, is how we will solve the fundamental problems at the heart of the ransomware epidemic.  Since early 2021, law enforcement and U.S. military activities against cybercrime threat actors, specifically those responsible for ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure, have increased dramatically. The White House also announced this year the creation of a ransomware task force, and dozens of nations […]

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Romanian ransomware suspect arrested in joint Europol, FBI operation

A Romanian man accused of using ransomware to target “high-profile” organizations and companies was arrested Monday as part of a joint operation between the Romanian National Police, the FBI, and Europol. The man — identified only as a 41-year-old living in Craiova, Romania — is accused of compromising an unnamed Romanian IT services company with clients in the retail, energy and utilities sectors, according to a Europol statement posted to the agency’s website. He then used that access to deploy ransomware and steal sensitive data from the IT company’s clients in Romania and abroad, before encrypting the files. The stolen data included financial information, personal information regarding employees and customers and other important documents. The man then asked for a “sizeable ransom payment in cryptocurrency,” the Europol statement read, with the threat of posting the stolen data on cybercrime forums. Allan Liska, the director of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm […]

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