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In Fiat land, things are getting more and more serious. The DarkSide legend continues U.S. State Department Press Release Provide up to 10 million U.S. dollars of “Information that leads to the identity or location of any individual who holds a key leadership position in the DarkSide ransomware variant transnational organized criminal group.“In addition, “up to 5 million U.S. dollars”Information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of any individual who conspired to participate in or attempted to participate in the DarkSide variant ransomware incident in any country/region.“
Related Reading | Monero was unveiled tonight last week, an important tool in the “ransomware economy”?
interesting.As you may remember, the software of this group is Colonial pipeline hackers and ransomware attacksSince DarkSide provides a ransomware-as-a-service platform, it has not been clear who is responsible for this, but the US State Department knows nothing about it. They clearly stated:
“The DarkSide ransomware team was responsible for the Colonial Pipeline Company ransomware incident in May 2021, which led to the company’s decision to proactively and temporarily close the 5,500-mile pipeline that carries 45% of the fuel used on the East Coast of the United States. State.”
Okay, that’s it.
Nonetheless, let’s explore it.
What is the dark side and what exactly is it?
In order to do this, we must quote the words of people familiar with the matter.According to reporters and computer security experts Brian Krebs:
“DarkSide first appeared on Russian hacker forums in August 2020. It is a ransomware-as-a-service platform that examines companies that cybercriminals can use to infect ransomware, and negotiates and makes payments with victims. DarkSide stated that it only targets Large companies and prohibit affiliates from delivering ransomware to organizations in multiple industries, including healthcare, funeral services, education, public sector and non-profit organizations.”
We are not implying that what they are doing is correct. Ransomware attack is a crime. They affect the entire crypto space by using our coins for evil purposes.
Having said that, there is clearly more to this story.
Where does ransomware come from?
We hate to do this, but the core of the ransomware is here Directly from the National Security Agency.
“Hackers can use tools stolen from the NSA, such as Eternal blue The malware encrypts all files on the infected machine, and then they demand a ransom, usually Bitcoin, to obtain the key to decrypt the data. “
This means that everyone wants what it means. However, there is one more problem. Why use Bitcoin for this? Every transaction is always recorded in the blockchain. Which criminal wants to leave such an unbreakable trace?
BTC price chart for 11/04/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Will rewards work? Will they get the dark side because of it?
Let us not deceive ourselves, 10 million dollars is a lot of money. The State Department is not idle. However, DarkSide is just an intermediary, they provide software for others to use. Or it seems so. Will the arrest stop the entire ransomware? maybe not. But this sends a strong message.
How effective are these rewards in history? The press release says:
“Since 1986, more than 75 transnational criminals and major drug smugglers have been brought to justice under the TOCRP and Narcotics Reward Program (NRP). To date, the department has paid more than $135 million in rewards.”
Related Reading | The U.S. Treasury Department claims that the top 10 ransomware variants paid more than $5 billion in BTC
Therefore, there were 75 criminals in 35 years, and the reward for the same period was $135 million. This does not seem to be a lot. This may mean that the plan is not so effective. It may also mean that this time they are serious and want immediate results. Did they just increase the budget for the DarkSide Group? It seems so. Let us follow this story together and see how it develops. The DarkSide legend continues.
Featured Image by Khusen Rustamov from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView
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