Notorious ransomware gang REvil was destroyed by Russia
The craziest ransomware gang is REvil, which was halted during the last summer after it hit U.S. enterprise service providers but has since resurfaced. This ransomware gang attacked many companies in the United States and even local governments in the United States and received a ransom of more than $100 million. It has long been targeted by the FBI. It’s just that most of its gang members are located in Russia. The US government departments have no law enforcement power, so even if they already know the addresses of the members, they cannot complete the arresting work.
Until recently Russia and the United States reached certain agreements, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) raided multiple addresses in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, and Lipetsk regions. The settlement operation resulted in the arrest of 14 REvil members, the seizure of $6.6 million in stolen money, and the seizure of more than 20 luxury cars that were purchased with money obtained by illicit means.
More than 10 members of the REvil ransomware gang have been successfully arrested after police raided 25 addresses, the FSB said in a press release. The crackdown was based on a call from U.S. authorities that U.S. law enforcement agencies notified Russia of the identities and addresses of the crime ringleaders and other associated information. The ransomware gang has seriously endangered the information security of high-tech companies by encroaching on the information resources of high-tech companies through malware, encrypted information, and extortion of money. The crackdown arrested 14 individuals involved in the REvil ransomware-as-a-service and seized over 426 million rubles, including in cryptocurrency, $600,000, €500,000, as well as computer equipment, crypto wallets used to commit crimes, and 20 luxury cars that were purchased with money obtained by illicit means. In addition, the Russian Federal Security Service and the Russian Interior Ministry have informed the United States of the results of the operation and will continue to cooperate in the fight against organized cybercrime in the future.
“While we are still looking to understand the true impact of these arrests, we applaud the Russian government for the actions it took today with regard to the REvil criminal ransomware group,” Matt Olney, director of threat intelligence and interdiction at Cisco Talos, said. “It’s important that criminal cyber actors and organizations not be allowed to operate with impunity. And so any result that leads to degrading of their capabilities is undoubtedly a good thing.”
Via: thehackernews
