Hackers demand $70 million in bitcoin to unlock 1 million computers

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Hacker group REvil claimed responsibility over the locking of a million devices during the July 4th weekend and demanded $70 million in bitcoin.
• It was still unknown how many devices were actually locked up by the hackers.
• President Joe Biden has urged the government to use its full resources to investigate the matter.

International hacker group REvil revealed that they were behind the Fourth of July weekend cyberattack and was responsible for locking over a million devices. The Russian-connected gang was also demanding a $70 million bitcoin ransom.

Infamously known for hacking the world’s largest meat supplier JBS and shortly suspending all its operations in North America, the REvil’s latest attack is outlandish in scope, per some cybersecurity experts.

The group’s cyberattack started on Friday, infiltrating the software company Kaseya, a firm that aids companies in managing usual software updates. The number of victims quickly grew because the majority of Kaseya’s clients are catering internet services for other businesses.

REvil individually locked each victim’s computer and demanded $45,000 before unlocking it.

So far, the hardest hit of the hacking was Swedish grocery chain Coop. The company was obliged to shut down around 800 of its stores the whole day on Saturday. Its online register is being managed by Visma Esscom, a Kaseya user. The systems were locked up and inoperative.

According to Huntress, the cybersecurity firm that currently helps Kaseya to address the crisis, over 1,000 individual businesses were afflicted by the attack. It was unclear how many systems were hit, but experts projected that the impact was broad in scope.

The gang said that they had infiltrated over a million devices during the attack. There were doubts, though, regarding the massive figures since there were only a few victims who spoke about the incident, and there was no database released by any government or companies which have been infected.

Cybersecurity company F-Secure researcher Mikko Hypponen, though, thought that the claim could be feasible since the approach was to infect every individual device.

“Think about a retail chain, like grocery retail,” Hypponen⁩ said. “Every single cashier system is an endpoint. Every laptop. Everybody in the sales has a system, multiple servers. 200 stores, 300 stores, they alone would have thousands of endpoints. And if a thousand Coop-like companies were infected, yes, you would have a million endpoints.”

Per Cybersecurity firm Recorded Future analyst Allan Liska, it would be hard to conceptualize how victims would go together and collectively pay the $70 million, not to mention how many they were.

“Despite the braggadocio in their note, I actually think it is actually a sign they are overwhelmed,” Liska said.

If there would be a million victims and each would give the $45,000 ransom, the total ransom would reach up to $45 billion, he said, adding that the gang was “low balling themselves at $70 million.”

Speaking with reporters on Sunday, President Joe Biden said that he has “directed the full resources” of the government to probe the issue.

Source: AOL.com