Ukrainian police have arrested members of a notorious ransomware gang that recently targeted American universities, as pressure mounts on global law enforcement to crack down on cybercriminals.
The Ukraine National Police said in a statement on Wednesday that it had worked with Interpol and the US and South Korean authorities to charge six members of the Ukraine-based Cl0p[sic] hacker group, which it claimed had inflicted a half-billion dollars in damages on victims based in the US and South Korea.
The move marks the first time that a national law enforcement agency has carried out mass arrests of a ransomware gang, adding to pressure on other countries to follow suit. Russia, a hub for ransomware gangs, has been blamed for harbouring cybercriminals by failing to prosecute or extradite them.
Cl0P is one of several ransomware cartels that seize a target’s data, demanding a ransom to release it. The group has also increasingly threatened to leak sensitive information online if a target refuses to pay, a tactic known as “double extortion.”
(Score: 2, Funny) by Mykl on Saturday June 19 2021, @07:06AM (10 children)
If they are arresting their own employees in the course of their work
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @07:27AM (8 children)
Not Russia, this was in Ukraine. At this point, they have a bit of a war going on.
Maybe please watch one of those cringe-worthy late night TV hosts things where they ask Americans about geography.
staffer: "Should we bomb N.Korea?"
public: "Yes."
staffer: "Can you show me on this world map where N.Korea is?"
public - points at Canada.
staffer: "Congratulations, you just bombed Canada."
Rinse and repeat for almost any country. Sad.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @07:43AM (6 children)
I think Mykl was trying to be funny, you know, sarcastic humor? Sometimes we nerds aren't so good at being funny. And, too often people here take things too seriously, as you have, and then some people downmod someone. Which is why I hate the mod system- people have power to hurt another person, even when the downmodder misunderstands, is clueless, triggered, etc. Stupid, broken, demoralizing system.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by zocalo on Saturday June 19 2021, @08:55AM
Remember the recent story about how certain keyboard layouts being installed could potentially prevent some malware from activating? Lots of former Soviet states, Ukraine included, were on the list and one possible reason for that is that the coders who wote it - whether state-sponsored or not - feel it's in their best interest not to irk anyone within those states with sufficient connections to retaliate, legally or otherwise. Political rhetoric and posturing aside, it definitely seems like there is at least some cross-border cooperation going on amongst the cybercriminal and state-sponsored APT groups, although how much is with the tacit approval of both governements involved is obviously open to debate.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @09:40PM
you are born alone and will die alone. everything inbetween should be funny, snowflake!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @12:01AM (3 children)
> ... I hate the mod system- people have power to hurt another person, ...
Anyone that is "hurt" by being downmodded must really be a fragile flower? I might look twice if someone posts something really ugly in response to one of my posts, but mods are so innocuous that taking offense (or feeling hurt) is a real waste of time and energy. Get over it millennials (or whatever generation you are).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @03:40AM (2 children)
Then why have a mod system at all?
I'll partially answer: because some people want to filter out the lower score posts, right?
Why bother spending time and effort to write something here, if it's just going to be downmodded below many people's reading level?
Default reading level for the casual passerby is 2, therefore many posts aren't seen.
So again, why bother? Kind of defeats the purpose of a communication medium, right?
That you don't care about your posts' scores, or karma if you have a login, is your business and opinion. Don't project your opinions and standards onto other people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @05:52AM (1 child)
Another partial answer: I'm a fairly dry writer (engineering/tech writer) and I sometimes try to write funny replies. If I get some +Funny mods, it's useful feedback on what works...with this tough crowd.
I browse at -1, nearly all the time, so I see every post (if I choose to follow a story).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 20 2021, @11:11AM
Yep, same here. Yep, tough crowd here. Green site sometimes better, sometimes worse.
Yep, same here. So what's the point of the mod system anyway.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @10:15PM
Why is bombing Canada a bad thing? As it is, they're (along with America's West Coast) pretty much a beach head taken over by Chinese bugmen and the Jewish bureaucrats taking their money.
Anyway, it's nice to finally see an article about hacking that doesn't feed into the hysterical Judeo-Globalist narrative of blaming the Russians. I expect we'll see more and more truths emerge now that we have a Chinese spy and the NSA is pushing back against FBI abuses of their database -- abuses granted by the Obama administration as a last-minute gift and improperly weaponized against politicians and other innocent Americans.
We're seeing more instances of Jews being publicly named, and that's also a good thing. First it was subtly with the recent Project Veritas, and in France a big military honcho just named them on live TV, causing many Oy Veys from the French fifth-columnists. Keep it up fellas!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @12:56PM
Hey, they need the hard currency. Same as North Korea ($2 billion a year from cyberscams), and many African countries (China is a major source of funding the scammers on Facebook, far exceeded what Russia historically did in Eastern Europe).
We're engaged in economic and political warfare, and shitty software design needs to take it's share of the blame. Allowing urls to display in anything but a fixed width font is a big part of it (bankofarnerica is NOT bankofamerica - but that RN sure looks like an M to most people).
Javascript needs to die. We all know that.
Same with css overrides. Same with being able to disable images, video, audio, all of which allow tracking by servers. And NO content served by any server not the original host.
I've been hit hy malware served by google last month when I enabled javascript to access a site. It created an off-screen "page" that continued to download and click on ads for 6 hours. Needless to say, I'm not doing THAT again.
And UX "experts" need to die to pie after being put on trial for crimes against humanity and enabling the financing of terrorists.
But it won't happen - too many people's paycheques depending on the shitfest continuing. And politicians are timid pale grubs more akin to what you find under a rock.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @02:31PM (1 child)
The best way to celebrate Juneteenth is to free everyone everywhere. Freedom, yeah!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 19 2021, @10:18PM
The Jews needed a way to cover up the anniversary of the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, who stole American secrets (including nuclear weapon secrets, which Russia did not previously posses) and gave them all to Russia. Yep, that's right, the rest of the world got the bomb thanks to Jewish spies rooted in our weapons programs!
Isn't it funny how their involvement in things such as the Slave Trade and treachery against America always get blamed on their "fellow Whites?"