REvil Attackers Dumped $1 Million Worth Of BTC On Public Forum

The Russian ReVil attackers or hackers, just dumped $1 million worth of BTC on a forum as a part of an online recruitment flex as we are reading more in our latest cryptonews.

The Russian hacker group put up about $1 million worth of Bitcoin online and the move was a way of enticing hackers to their cause. McAfee analysis suggested that the group is connected to GranCrab that targeted local government organizations in Texas last year. The REvil attackers known as Sodinokibi, deposited $1 million worth of coins on the hackers’ forum in September. The move was done as a part of the public recruitment effort.

Ransomware attacks involve software that can freeze computers and demand a fee to be paid which allows the device to function as normal once again. In 2017, WannaCry attack made the ransomware attacks requesting BTC payments infamous but now ReVil are recruiting new hackers to carry out more attacks. To show off the capabilities, the group deposited 99 bitcoin worth about $1 million to entice the new hackers. The hackers said:

“For your peace of mind and confidence, we have made a deposit of 1 million US dollars.”

The deposit was seemingly designed to promote confidence in the hacking group as it was timed alongside a recruitment post targeting the hackers that are skilled in penetration testing. Revil detailed the software experience that they were searching for:

 “Teams that already have experience and skills in penetration testing, working with msf / cs / koadic, nas / tape, hyper-v and analogues of the listed software and devices.”

The recruitment drive is not open to everyone but as the group explained:

 “All this is aimed at one thing – to increase the quality and quantity of waste material, which entails an increase in profits. But this does not mean that everyone will be accepted.”

"Data from @CheckPointSW referring to the third quarter of the year shows that Maze and Ryuk were the most prevalent ransomware families, with the latter attacking, on average, 20 companies per week" https://t.co/a7ZJiD7YWC #Ransomware #Malware #cybersecurity pic.twitter.com/FkNvyoxrEM

— Raj Samani (@Raj_Samani) October 6, 2020

The chief scientist at McAfee Raj Samani described the recruitment of the group as a very concerning development. Last year, McAfee analysis suggested that ReVil is the newest iteration of the GandCrab hacker group which caused major disruption in 23 organizations connected to local government back in Texas as the McAfee study said:

Raj Samani, the chief scientist at McAfee, described the group’s recruitment effort as a “very concerning development.”

 “We executed an in-depth analysis comparing GandCrab and Sodinokibi and discovered a lot of similarities, indicating the developer of Sodinokibi had access to GandCrab source-code and improvements.”