FBI manages to crack hackers and stop extortion in the amount of $130 million
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation prevented the Hive cyber group from extorting millions
At the end of January, the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that it had successfully hacked and damaged a prolific ransomware gang called Hive, in an operation that stopped the group from collecting over $130 million in ransomware demands from more than 300 victims.
A press conference revealed that the FBI’s special cyber division acquired access to Hive’s network, monitoring the group’s activities and stealing the digital keys the group used to unlock victim organizations’ data.
Akin to an action thriller, the FBI agents managed to alert the victims before the hackers managed to approach them, advising them to protect their systems, before the hackers could make a move.
The reporters first became aware of the event when the Hive’s website had been taken down and replaced by a message from the FBI stating that they had arrested the site in coordinated action. This seems to have been an international operation that involved support also from national security agencies in Germany and the Netherlands.
