The American FBI has taken the website of the ransomware group ALPHV/Blackcat offline and is releasing a tool to decrypt the encrypted files.
BlackCat was one of the most active cybercrime groups in the past year and a half and infected over a thousand companies. The FBI believes the tool will help about five hundred of them.
However, the tool is not freely available. The American institution refers companies to their local FBI offices in its communications. It is not clear to what extent they will also help European victims.
Simultaneously with the decryption tool, the FBI took over BlackCat’s website. However, that didn’t happen without a fight.
On Tuesday, the FBI initially took over the site, only to be reinstated hours later by BlackCat, which stated that the key brandished by the FBI could only recover 400 companies from the “more than three thousand” victims. But in the meantime, the FBI has regained control of the site.
