American FBI and BlackCat hacker team launched a "tug of war" to "revive" the blackmail software website after it was shut down.
CTOnews.com, December 20, according to foreign media BleepingComputer, the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) is engaged in a "tug of war" with the BlackCat hacker team. FBI had previously announced that it had "successfully raided the BlackCat hacker team on December 7" and shut down the website where the hacker "released the victim's data", but then the BlackCat hacker team claimed to have "recovered the website" in the dark net.
Foreign media BleepingComputer of ▲ image (same as below)
Hacker sites where ▲ was previously shut down by FBI
▲ hackers then announced the "withdrawal of the website." CTOnews.com learned that BlackCat is a "notorious" hacker team that uses blackmail software to encrypt victims' computers, demand virtual currency to unlock, and is said to have extorted hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom around the world.
The team, originally founded in 2020 as "DarkSide" and later renamed "BlackMatter", was successfully cracked by the security company Emsisoft and joint police in mid-2021, but the team made a comeback at the end of 2021 and renamed it "BlackCat".
It is reported that in the raid launched on December 7, FBI successfully took control of a data center on the hacker side, but at present, both FBI and the hacker team hold the key to the registered website URL, so the two sides will be sawed in the future and take turns to "take over" the control of the website.
Today, hackers claim on the secret network that FBI actually "controls only one data center" and that other data centers are still in the hands of hackers. Although FBI successfully obtained the unlocking keys of 400 victimized companies, the hackers still have the keys of more than 3000 companies.
The hackers also claimed that they would "retaliate against FBI's actions" and that the team would "attack key facilities such as hospitals and nuclear power plants" in the future. In addition, the "unlock service" would be suspended, and the victim company would "never get back the unlock key".
