The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that the website of the ransomware gang called “Hive”, which received more than $ 100 million from its victims, was crashed.
In a written statement on the FBI’s website, Director Christopher Wray said, “This operation was led by FBI personnel based around the world who are leading collaboration with our foreign law enforcement partners, as well as our cyber unit team at FBI Headquarters and other field office personnel around the country. managed.” statements were included.
“Hive has harmed thousands of victims across the country and around the world.” Wray stated that the FBI, with its “European partners”, seized the pirated software by cracking the passwords of the websites without attracting the attention of the gang.
Wray noted that in July 2022, the FBI Tampa Office gained covert and permanent access to Hive’s control panel, which over the past seven months has offered more than 1,300 victims of Hive worldwide the key to decrypt their infected networks, and paid hackers $130 million in ransom. shared the information they blocked.
The FBI’s operation was the last of the Justice Department’s long-term efforts to combat gangs demanding tens of millions of dollars in ransom by locking down the computer systems of many major companies, especially the energy and health sector in the US.
Hive hackers cyberattacked the computers of the 314-bed hospital in Louisiana in October 2022 and stole the personal data of 270,000 patients.
International hackers, who took over the computer systems of many hospitals in the USA, seized the internet network of the Colonial Pipeline pipeline company in May 2021, causing the 5,500-mile pipeline, which carries 45 percent of the fuel used in the east of the country, to be closed for a while. (AA)