WASHINGTON – Federal authorities dismantled a website operated by a notorious ransomware gang, known to extort millions of dollars from victims as part of a global cybercrime operation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the FBI late Wednesday seized a cache of computer servers in Los Angeles supporting the group known as Hive, while foreign law enforcement partners took control of a similar network in Europe to take down the operation which had targeted 1,500 victims in 80 countries.
Since June 2021, federal authorities said, Hive had reaped more than $100 million in ransom payments from schools, hospitals and a range of private companies.
Among the U.S. victims, Garland said, was a hospital in the Midwest, whose systems were locked, preventing the facility from accepting patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ransomware operations deploy malicious software to targeted computer systems to seize crucial data that is held hostage for ransom payments.
FBI Director Christopher Wray characterized law enforcement’s action against Hive as unprecedented in scope and in its result: He said agents were able to secretly infiltrate the Hive networks for seven months where they identified the group’s targets and provided decryption keys to 1,300 victims, averting $130 million in ransom payments.
Wray characterized the seizure of the decryption keys as “cutting off the gas” that supported the global network.
No arrests were reported Thursday, but Wray said the investigation was continuing in the U.S. and across Europe.
“In a 21st century cyber stakeout, our investigative team turned the tables on Hive, swiping their decryption keys, passing them to victims, and ultimately averting more than $130 million dollars in ransomware payments,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. “We hacked the hackers.”
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Story Credit: usatoday.com