A foul day within the workplace for the REvil ransomware gang, as Russia arrests 14 members • Graham Cluley

Whereas data-wiping malware is hitting the PCs of a number of Ukrainian organisations, Russia has taken the shocking step of arresting 14 members of the REvil ransomware gang.

After years of Russia ignoring calls for from different nations to take motion in opposition to infamous ransomware gangs, it lastly seems to have executed one thing… utilizing data provided to it by the USA.

Russia’s FSB claims that other than dismantling the ransomware-as-a-service (RAAS) gang often known as Sodinokibi, it has additionally seized over 426 million rubles (over US $5.5 million), and greater than 20 “premium automobiles”.

In different phrases, a nasty day within the workplace for REvil which beforehand plagued the likes of IT service agency Kaseya and its shoppers, the world’s greatest meat provider JBS, internet hosting supplier Managed.com and others.

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Admittedly, it felt just like the writing had been on the wall for REvil for a while, after reviews final October that laptop crime-fighting authorities had managed to hack REvil’s laptop community infrastructure, and seized management of at the least a few of the group’s servers.

However for Russia to arrest REvil’s members and seize its cash is a a lot worse transfer for the REvil gang than Western regulation enforcement companies disrupting its actions.

A White Home official informed reporters that the arrests have been welcomed by the Biden administration, and that “…we perceive that one of many people who was arrested right this moment was chargeable for the assault in opposition to Colonial Pipeline final spring.”

I’d be stunned to see Russia to go one step additional and extradite the suspects to face trial in the US (the place a $10 million reward has been provided.)

So I ponder why Russia has lastly executed one thing now in opposition to a infamous ransomware gang? It’s a transfer which is prone to be welcomed by a lot of the world, simply when Russia is feared to be getting ready to invade one in every of its neighbours – a rustic which itself has simply come underneath cyber assault.

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