ICT Security-Sécurité PC et Internet

The Feds have disrupted the prolific Hive ransomware gang, saving victims from a collective $130 million in ransom demands. But it remains to be seen how much of a blow the effort will be to the overall ransomware landscape.

The group's operations have been buzzing with activity for months, racking up more than 1,500 victims in 80-plus countries around the world since it appeared in June 2021, according to an announcement from the US Justice Department. The gang has been operating with a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, engaging in data theft and double extortion, and delivering its venom indiscriminately to school districts, financial firms, critical infrastructure, and others. At least one affiliate has become a bit of a hospital specialist, disrupting patient care in some attacks.

The Hive ransomware gang now also encrypts Linux and FreeBSD using new malware variants specifically developed to target these platforms.

However, as Slovak internet security firm ESET discovered, Hive's new encryptors are still in development and still lack functionality.

The Linux variant also proved to be quite buggy during ESET's analysis, with the encryption completely failing when the malware was executed with an explicit path.