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The prolific Ziggy ransomware gang has announced that it will start refunding ransom payments to its victims, pursuing the group’s choice to cease functions.
The administrator of the gang’s operations had hinted about the idea on 19 March, indicating that they have been searching to return the payments to those who experienced paid ransoms. Producing payments to ransomware teams in an endeavor to recover encrypted or stolen information is usually not encouraged and might even lead to prosecution.
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However, according to statements found by BleepingComputer, the team announced their retirement from cyber crime on 6 February, with the administrator of the operation expressing regret about their steps and announcing that they experienced “decided to publish all decryption keys” to the influenced programs.
The following working day, they shared a SQL file containing 922 decryption keys which could be used by their victims to get back obtain to their info. The Ziggy administrator also offered the victims with a decryption device, as effectively as the source code for a decryptor that doesn’t involve entry to an internet network.
Pretty much two months later, the Ziggy group is now also offering to return the ransom payments, with victims questioned to get hold of the gang’s admin at [email protected] and attach evidence of payment as well as their laptop ID. In accordance to the hackers, the money will be returned to the victim’s Bitcoin wallet inside two weeks.
Even so, it is value noting that now there is tiny evidence to counsel that the dollars will in point be returned.
Even with presenting to return the compensated ransoms, the Ziggy team will however be profiting from the cyber attacks due to the payments staying made in Bitcoin. It appears that hackers will return only the value of the ransom at the time of payment, rather than the amount of bitcoin paid – a cryptocurrency that has surged in value in recent months.
On 7 February, when the decryption keys were being created public, the cost of just one Bitcoin was close to £28,000. At the time of crafting, it is valued at more than £41,000.
Some pieces of this write-up are sourced from:
www.itpro.co.uk