After years of losing, it’s finally feds’ turn to troll ransomware group

After years of being outmaneuvered by snarky ransomware criminals who tease and brag about every new sufferer they declare, worldwide authorities lastly acquired their probability to show the tables, and so they aren’t squandering it.

The highest-notch trolling got here after authorities from the US, UK, and Europol took down a lot of the infrastructure belonging to Lockbit, a ransomware syndicate that has extorted greater than $120 million from hundreds of victims around the globe. On Tuesday, a lot of the websites Lockbit makes use of to disgrace its victims for being hacked, strain them into paying, and brag of their hacking prowess started displaying content material saying the takedown. The seized infrastructure additionally hosted decryptors victims may use to get better their information.

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Authorities didn’t use the seized name-and-shame web site solely for informational functions. One part that appeared prominently gloated over the extraordinary extent of the system entry investigators gained. A number of photos indicated that they had management of /etc/shadow, a Linux file that shops cryptographically hashed passwords. This file, among the many most security-sensitive ones in Linux, will be accessed solely by a person with root, the best degree of system privileges.

Different photos demonstrated that investigators additionally had full management of the principle net panel and the system Lockbit operators used to speak with associates and victims.

The razzing didn’t cease there. File names of the photographs had titles together with: “this_is_really_bad.png,” “oh pricey.png,” and “doesnt_look_good.png.” The seized web page additionally teased the upcoming doxing of LockbitSupp, the moniker of the principle Lockbit determine. It learn: “Who’s LockbitSupp? The $10m query” and displayed photos of money wrapped in chains with padlocks. Copying a standard apply of Lockbit and competing ransomware teams, the seized web site displayed a clock counting down the seconds till the figuring out data might be posted.

In all, authorities stated they seized control of 14,000 accounts and 34 servers situated within the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France, Switzerland, Australia, the US, and the UK. Two Lockbit suspects have been arrested in Poland and Ukraine, and 5 indictments and three arrest warrants have been issued. Authorities additionally froze 200 cryptocurrency accounts linked to the ransomware operation.

“At current, an enormous quantity of information gathered all through the investigation is now within the possession of legislation enforcement,” Europol officers said. “This information might be used to assist ongoing worldwide operational actions centered on concentrating on the leaders of this group, in addition to builders, associates, infrastructure, and prison property linked to those prison actions.”

Lockbit has operated since no less than 2019 below the title “ABCD.” Inside three years, it was probably the most broadly circulating ransomware. Like most of its friends, Lockbit operates below what’s often known as ransomware-as-a-service, wherein it offers software program and infrastructure to associates who use it to compromise victims. Lockbit and the associates then divide any ensuing income. A whole bunch of associates participated.

According to KrebsOnSecurity, one of many Lockbit leaders stated on a Russian-language crime discussion board {that a} vulnerability within the PHP scripting language supplied the means for authorities to hack the servers. That element led to a different spherical of razzing, this time from fellow discussion board contributors.

“Does it imply that the FBI supplied a pen-testing service to the associates program?” one participant wrote, in keeping with reporter Brian Krebs. “Or did they resolve to participate within the bug bounty program? :):).”

A number of members additionally posted memes taunting the group concerning the safety failure.

“In January 2024, LockBitSupp instructed XSS discussion board members he was disillusioned the FBI hadn’t supplied a reward for his doxing and/or arrest, and that in response he was inserting a bounty on his personal head—providing $10 million to anybody who may uncover his actual title,” Krebs wrote. “‘My god, who wants me?’ LockBitSupp wrote on January 22, 2024. ‘There may be not even a reward out for me on the FBI web site.’”