US shuts down major ransomware network Hive - War Against Cybercrime
Greetings to my esteemed friends on the InformationWar platform and the entire hive blockchain. It's another day and time to share with you issues around the world that's affecting the internet and cyber security across the world. It's your friend @faquan, saying hello from this part of the world.
Disclaimer: This news doesn't in anyway relate to the Hive Blockchain, so keep still, but everyone needs to aware of the ongoing cybercrimes happening on a daily basis.
There's an increase in cybercrime across the world and the United States have received most of it's attack for the past decade now, although it has been discovered that most of the IT companies that engage in cybercrime are resident in Russia.
The United States has seized the website of a major ransomware network, the US Department of Justice announced, accusing Hive ransomware actors of extorting more than $100m from more than 1,500 victims around the world.
In a statement on Thursday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Department of Justice had dismantled “an international ransomware network responsible for extorting and attempting to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from victims”.
Cybercrime by ransomware became a national issue after a pipeline of a major company was hacked, which multi-billion ransom was paid to the ransomware network in 2021, although the US government have recovered the funds. The ransomware network target hospitals, school districts, financial firms, and critical infrastructure and many others.
The hackers targeted the software of these major institutions and change their passwords, making not to be able to access their softwares and at one of the corner of the software they'll indicate that the company needs to pay ransom in order to get back their database.
In Thursday’s statement, the Department of Justice said the FBI infiltrated Hive’s computer networks beginning in July 2022. The FBI captured decryption keys, which were then circulated to victims worldwide to help them avoid paying $130m in ransom, it said.
“Since infiltrating Hive’s network in July 2022, the FBI has provided over 300 decryption keys to Hive victims who were under attack. In addition, the FBI distributed over 1,000 additional decryption keys to previous Hive victims,” the statement read.Source
The FBI in collaboration with the Department of Justice have helped victims of ransomware network to recover their decryption keys, which has helped them avoid payment of ransoms to the Hive. This is a good step towards the right direction in terms of fighting Cybercrime in the US and other parts of the world.
Hive operated as a ransomware service, meaning anyone could hire its software and other services to help hack into and lock down a target’s IT systems, and to process payments. Hive and the client would share the profits from the extortion.Source
It's just awful that Hive ransomware network is a registered company with license to operate and it's time for companies such as this who operate fraudulent activities on the internet should be investigated and probe by the United States' government.
During a news conference alongside Garland and other US officials on Thursday morning, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the operation to dismantle Hive’s infrastructure was done in coordination with partners in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Europol.