Websites utilized by the Hive ransomware-as-a-service gang to extort ransoms and leak information stolen from company victims have been seized in a joint operation involving police all over the world.
Law enforcement companies together with Europol, the US Department of Justice, FBI, Secret Service, Europol, and Germany’s BKA and Polizei, teamed as much as shut down the operations of the Hive gang which is believed to have extorted ransoms from over 1300 firms all over the world, massing an estimated $100 million within the final 18 months.
Hive was a very infamous ransomware group as a result of, not like a few of its rivals, it appeared to don’t have any qualms about concentrating on healthcare establishments.
However, at this time, for those who enterprise onto the darkish net and go to Hive’s leak web site, that is what you will notice…
THIS HIDDEN SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED
The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized this web site as a part of a coordinated regulation enforcement motion taken towards Hive Ransomware.
This motion has been taken in coordination with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice with substantial help from Europol
Every few seconds, through the magic of an animated GIF, the message adjustments to 1 in Russian (presumably in an try to ship a strong message to over ransomware gangs).
A US Department of Justice press launch has introduced that the FBI penetrated Hive’s infrastructure in late July 2022, capturing decryption keys, and providing them to victims worldwide so they don’t have to pay a ransom.
In all, the FBI says it has supplied over 300 decryption keys to Hive victims since July 2022. In addition, over 1,000 decryption keys have been made out there to previous Hive victims.
The FBI says it continues to analyze the Hive ransomware-as-a-service operation. Whether this ultimately ends in the identification and prosecution of these concerned in blackmailing organisations stays to be seen…
Found this text fascinating? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to learn extra of the unique content material we put up.