Ransomware Gang Says the Real Ransomware Gang Is the Federal Government

On Thursday, Reuters revealed that the ransomware hacking group that hobbled gas distribution in the US for days in May was itself hacked and pushed offline by a coordinated operation led by multiple governments, among them the United States. 

On Friday, a competing ransomware gang that calls itself Conti released a statement titled “ReviLives,” in support of the REvil gang, which was the target of the international operation. In their announcement, the hackers denounced the law enforcement operation, and said that the real ransomware gang is the US government..

“With all the endless talks in your media about ‘ransomware-is-bad,’ we would like to point out the biggest ransomware group of all time: your Federal Government,” wrote the hackers in the announcement, which they helpfully labeled as “Own Opinion,” in case you had any doubts.  

Ransomware is more than 30 years old. Yet, it has only reached the status of national security threat in the last few years, especially after the Colonial Pipeline hack earlier this year.

It’s a serious problem that policymakers all over the world, such as President Joe Biden, as well as thousands of cybersecurity engineers and researchers, are trying to solve. Ransomware gangs have hit countless companies, schools, and hospitals—allegedly causing the death of a newborn. 

The hackers behind these ransomware attacks are serious organized criminal enterprises. At times, they are also hilarious.

“First, an attack against some servers, which the US security attributes to REvil, is another reminder of what we all know: the unilateral, extraterritorial, and bandit-mugging behavior of the United States in world affairs,” the hackers wrote. “However, the fact that it became a norm does not presume that it should be treated like one. Unlike our dearest journalist friends from the Twitter brothel, who will sell their own mother for a bone from bankers or politicians, we have the guts to name things as they are. We have a conscience, as well as anonymity, while our skills allow us to say something that many ‘allied’ governments are afraid of saying.”

Do you have more information about the Conti ransomware gang, or another ransomware group? We’d love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, Wire/Wickr @lorenzofb, or email lorenzofb@vice.com.

You can read the whole statement here. The announcement was originally published in Conti’s dark web page. 

Conti, also known as Ryuk, is infamous for hitting hundreds of victims, including local governments, health care and first responder networks, as well as companies like JVCKenwood. 

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