FBI Puts Up $10M Reward For Anyone Who Can Lead It To DarkSide Hackers
Image ID 129896215 © via Peerapong Boriboon | Dreamstime.com
The State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have put up a reward of up to US$10 million for anyone who can lead them to the leaders of the DarkSide ransomware group. Additionally, there’s a US$5 million bounty on information leading to the arrest of anyone “attempting to participate in a DarkSide variant ransomware incident.”
“In offering this reward, the United States demonstrates its commitment to protecting ransomware victims around the world from exploitation by cyber criminals,” said Ned Price, a State Department spokesperson.
As per ABC News, DarkSide gained notoriety when it launched a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline Company in May, shutting down the source of nearly half of the fuel on the East Coast for several days.
Authorities previously speculated the group, which rebranded as BlackMatter following the incident, could be operating out of Eastern Europe. Its members conducted more attacks in recent months, such as on Japanese firm Olympus, and two companies in the US food and agriculture sector.
Though, in a bit of a coincidence, the group recently announced it would be shutting down due to increased pressure from law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Jake Williams, Chief Technology Officer at BreachQuest, told TechCrunch such a large reward could cause problems for hacker groups even beyond DarkSide/BlackMatter group.
“With rewards this large, there’s a substantial incentive for these criminals to turn on one another. Perhaps more importantly than the specific impacts to DarkSide, this action undermines trust across the ransom as a service affiliate model,” he explained.
“This is especially good timing, since it capitalizes on the recent REvil (another hacker organization) infiltration by law enforcement. The law enforcement action against REvil in July already caused significant trust issues among operators.”
“This drives that wedge deeper and will extend far beyond DarkSide,” Williams said.
#Breaking: The State Department is offering rewards of up to $10 million for information that leads to the...
Posted by FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, November 4, 2021
[via ABC News and TechCrunch, cover image via Peerapong Boriboon | Dreamstime.com]
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