Over the course of seven months, the FBI secretly accessed the renowned Hive ransomware servers in order to prevent the gang from extorting money from hundreds of victims.
The statement was made on Thursday by the United States Department of Justice. The FBI and European authorities worked together to take down the Hive servers. They also replaced the official Hive website on the dark web with a banner stating that the site has been seized.
According to the FBI, they have been spying on Hive’s computer network since July 2022 and have sent over 300 description keys to the victims. Furthermore, the FBI supplied over 1,000 additional decryption keys to former Hive victims, according to the Justice Department. The obtained decryption keys almost certainly cost the Hive gang $130 million in ransomware payments.
Attorney General Lisa Monaco would only reply, “Simply put, we hacked the hackers using lawful means,” when asked how the authorities took the servers.
They have also confiscated other Los Angeles-based servers used by the gang. However, the Justice Department stated that no particular persons associated with the Hive Ransomware group had been charged or arrested. It is very likely that the organization will launch another cyber-attack and cause much more havoc.
