Russia's most aggressive ransomware group disappeared. It's unclear who made that happen.

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

Just days after President Biden called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and demanded that he act to shut down ransomware groups that are attacking American targets, the biggest of them has gone off-line. The mystery is who made that happen.

The group, called REvil, short for “Ransomware evil,” is believed responsible for the attack that brought down one of America’s largest beef producers, JBS, and it took credit for a hack that affected thousands of businesses around the world over the July 4 holiday. On Friday, describing his ultimatum to the Russian president, Mr. Biden said “we expect them to act,” and when asked later if he would take down the group’s servers if Mr. Putin did not, the president simply said, “Yes.”

But that is only one possible explanation for what happened around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, when the group’s sites on the dark web suddenly disappeared. Gone was the publicly-available “happy blog’’ that the group maintained, listing its victims, and internet security groups said the custom-made sites where victims negotiate with REvil over how much they will pay to get their data unlocked were also missing.

While their disappearance was celebrated by many who see ransomware as a new scourge, one that Mr. Biden has called a critical national security threat, it left others in the lurch — unable to pay the ransom to get their data back, and their businesses back up and running.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/us/politics/russia-hacking-ransomware-revil.html

[LakeArenal]

1. Lots on interesting threads today. This is one.

Thanks.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. According to other info in the article

apparently some of the businesses were still in the process of negotiating ransom terms for getting their data access back, and then the outfit went dark, leaving them and their data in limbo, and unable to start their businesses back up again.

[Cha]

11. That's horrible!

[TomCADem]

33. I Think Biden Laid Down The Threat That Any Further Attacks Would Be ...

...treat as state sponsored terrorism by Russia, because that is what it is. If a middle eastern country hosted a hacking group that caused billions of dollars of damage to the U.S. by causing gas shortages and crippling hospitals, everyone would be demanding a military strike.

[marble falls]

2. Putin loses either way. Either Putin blinked in the face of Joe's ultimatum, or Joe followed ...

... followed through in a nice, quick and thorough delivery of his promise.

[LakeArenal]

4. Nice to have a Prez that creates "follow through"

[marble falls]

8. And it's follow through on critical matters in the right way. The only things 45 followed through ..

... on was grifting and any bucket of fried chicken.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. It's interesting what some of the "theories" are

that either Biden ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to take them down, or Putin blinked and had them back off, or they shut themselves down, recalling what happened with a different group - Darkside - who had taken down the Colonial Pipeline, and then the FBI found a private key to access where the extorted funds had been deposited, and took the money back.

[marble falls]

9. I'm waiting to hear about their money vaporizing next.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Me too

although I expect they would be working on "freeing" those in limbo who were still being held captive and/or have paid money but then didn't get their data access back before the group vanished.

[Ligyron]

25. They may well have taken the money first.

Then shut them down.

[pandr32]

12. +1

[Piasladic]

5. Rec, Kick, and Funfuckingtastic - nt

[ffr]

6. So, however you cut it, because WE elected a DEMOCRAT as president

There is less EVIL in the world.

Got it.

GOTV. Elect more democrats.

[LudwigPastorius]

10. Don't fuck with POTUS, Vladimir.

He'll cut your intestines out and use them as socks.

[KS Toronado]

13. Appears Joe could use some socks.

[HuskyOffset]

17. He should ask Bernie if he has some extra, we know Bernie rocks mittens

He rocks the mittens, so maybe he has some extra socks too!

[Harker]

18. Socks schmocks.

One of my shorter poems.

[The Mouth]

15. Let's just hope it was painful and permanent.

[Hekate]

16. "Fascinating," said Spock

[ancianita]

19. Badass Biden made it happen.

[Ford_Prefect]

20. IMHO and only that: They pulled a funk and dropped out. They will likely be attacking a new target:

Critical infrastructure or election related services and systems that relay the local count to a point up-stream.

Why??? The stuff they've done up to now was field testing for the terror yet to come.

[oldsoftie]

23. I'm afraid I agree. Unless we hear something concrete

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

24. Me, too...

... that was the first thing that came to mind for me. This gig is up, regroup for bigger.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

21. Time to re-read Gorky Park.

I hope we went in there and made it wet. I supposed though, flush with success they might have lipped off a bit to Vladdy and examples needed to be made.

[marble falls]

31. Great book and good movie. Martin Cruz Smith is a fine writer. All the other book are good ...

... in the Arkady Renko series.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

34. This I did not know! Thank you!

I saw the book somewhere and remembered seeing a lot of them on shelves and coffee tables in the 70’s so I figured I’d give it a whirl...GREAT story, but I left it there and never knew he’d written more! I’ll check it out!

[marble falls]

36. Red Square, Polar Star, Havana Harbor and at least three others escaping my geezer memory ...

Another author, Sarah Joh Rowland, writes about a Japanese detective - Sano Ichiro - in the 17th century during the Tokugawa shogunate.

Very good tight stories mixed with accurate historical and social coloring.

Shinju (1994)
Bundori (1996)
The Way of the Traitor (1997)
The Concubine's Tattoo (1998)
The Samurai's Wife (2000)
Black Lotus (2001)
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria (2002)
The Dragon King's Palace (2003)
The Perfumed Sleeve (2004)
The Assassin's Touch (2005)
Red Chrysanthemum (2006)
The Snow Empress (2007)
The Fire Kimono (2008)
The Cloud Pavilion (2009)
The Ronin's Mistress (2011)
The Incense Game (2012)
The Shogun's Daughter (2013)
The Iris Fan (2014)

I haven't read the last six, yet. I read them in order, because the first five or six were in a kind of arc, though each book stands alone.

Rowlands is also a history scholar and wrote the best book I've read on Korean History and has written a couple of high class bodice rippers, too - though I haven't read them.

Highly recommend both authors.

Smith has written other books than about Renco, too - Stallion Gate about White Sand, NM atomic bomb facilities, another great mystery book.

[Wounded Bear]

22. K & R...nt

[Roy Rolling]

26. Whoever, Whatever

The result is undeniable: the sites went dark.

Something happened.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Someone is holding them for ransom

but no one will claim them

[orangecrush]

28. Good news

[Beartracks]

29. When asked if he would take down the group's servers, the president simply said, "Yes."

===========

[JohnnyRingo]

30. They might have retired to the Bahamas.

It's called quitting while you're ahead.
With all the heat on them it would be smart timing.

[Martin68]

32. Biden rules!

He stared down Putin and the hackers disappeared.

[RobinA]

35. Biden Offered Them

a job and an American car.