Russia-Linked Hacker Group Demands $70 Million For Universal Decryptor Of All Victims’ Files

REvil, a hacker group, has asked for $70 million worth of Bitcoin to deploy a universal decryptor that will unlock files of all victims of its hack attacks. Essentially, REvil is selling illegally obtained information.

The group’s malware attack first focused on Kaseya, an IT firm based in the US. According to cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs’ report, REvil’s activities have affected more than one million systems. Although the exact number of systems and victims is unknown, BBC reports that victims include 500 Swedish Coop supermarkets and 11 New Zealand schools.

REvil, linked with Russia, first went after Kaseya’s systems before accessing several corporate client networks that rely on Kaseya’s software. Upon hearing news of the attack, the company shut down its servers and published a statement. Kaseya suggests that the number of affected customers is ignorable:

“While our early indicators suggested that only a very small number of on-premises customers were affected, we took a conservative approach in shutting down the SaaS servers to ensure we protected our more than 36,000 customers to the best of our ability.”

Last month, the world’s biggest meat processor, JBS, paid $11 million to hackers who took down its processing plans. The FBI fingered REvil as the culprit. Although the US government strongly discourages paying hackers, victims are usually left with no choice.

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