Ransomware Group Conti Itself Hacked After Support for Russia
Data from hacker group Conti is on the street after the criminals themselves were hacked. That came after the group expressed its support for Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
Conti is a hacker group that extorts companies with ransomware. Companies that fall victim, see their files encrypted, while at the same time they are threatened that some files will be made public. The group usually penetrates through phishing and uses known vulnerabilities in systems. From there, it rolls out Trickbot and BazaLoader malware, among others.
But now, the gang itself has become a target. On February 25, the group published a blog post in which they declared their full support for the Russian government in its attack on Ukraine. As a result, anyone who would carry out a cyberattack on Russia will face a headwind from Conti, it said.
That threat made little impression. A Ukrainian security researcher managed to gain access to a server belonging to the gang and obtain a lot of data. At the moment, most chat conversations have been leaked, although more data would follow Bleeping Computer writes. The current files are still available for download.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has also been partly digital over the past week. Ukraine quickly fell victim to a series of cyberattacks. At the same time, the country is calling on experts to support with counter-attacks or protect infrastructure. But websites of Russian governments or companies are also attacked from outside the countries.