The US Department of State has decided on the subject of ransomware attacks that enough is enough, and has put out a bounty on the REvil ransomware attacks. The bounty is set at US$10 million (~RM41.5 million) for any information that would help identify the threat actors and US$5 million (~RM20.8 million) for information leading to the arrest or conviction of said actors in their country of origin.
The DOS’ bounty comes as a response to a recent ransomware attack by REvil, this time involving an agricultural products provider named JBS Foods, whose business expands across both the US and Australia. Prior to this, the ransomware group also attacked the digital infrastructure of the Florida-based IT company, Kaseya, back in July this year, demanding a ransom of US$70 million (~RM290 million) in Bitcoin.
In addition to the bounty, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) also arrested two men – a Ukranian by the name of Yaroslav Vasinskyi and a Russian called Yevgeniy Plyanin – accused of having roles within the REvil group. The DOJ also managed to seize US$6.1 million (~RM25.3 million) in traceable funds, linked to several payments that were obtained from several businesses and government entities in Texas. Sometime within August.
REvil came into prominence earlier this year when it forced its way into the servers of Taiwanese PC brand, Acer, and held their data hostage unless a ransom of US$50 million (~RM201 million) was paid. In August, the group targetted Gigabyte.
(Source: Hot Hardware, US DOJ)
