REvil has been blamed for the ransom-ware attack swiftly by the cyber-security experts
A ransom amount of $70 million to restore the data has been demanded by the hackers suspected to be behind a mass ransom-ware attack that affected hundreds of companies worldwide late on Sunday, according to a posting on a dark web site.
The demand was posted on a site typically used by REvil cyber-crime gang, a Russia-linked group that is counted among the cybercriminal world’s most prolific extortionists.
Occasionally making it difficult to determine who speaks on the hackers’ behalf, the gang has an affiliate structure, but Allan Liska of cyber-security firm Recorded Future said the message “almost certainly” came from REvil’s core leadership.
The group has not responded to an attempt by Reuters to reach it for comment.
In a series of increasingly attention-grabbing hacks, REvil’s ransom-ware attack, which the group executed on Friday, was among the most dramatic.
The gang broke into Kaseya, a Miami-based information technology firm, and used their access to breach some of its clients’ clients, setting off a ransom-ware attack chain reaction that quickly paralyzed the computers of hundreds of firms worldwide.
REvil has been blamed for the ransom-ware attack swiftly by the cyber-security experts. Sunday’s statement was the group’s first public acknowledgment that it was behind it.
An executive at Kaseya said the company was aware of the ransom demand but did not immediately return further messages seeking comment.
Liska said he believed the hackers had bitten off more than they could chew.
“For all of their big talk on their blog, I think this got way out of hand and is a lot bigger than they expected”, he said.
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