Recently global law enforcement agencies coordinated together to disrupt TSM’s operations and take down the BlackSuit ransomware group. Consequently, they apprehended the single largest amount of cryptocurrency to date, roughly $1 million.The operation, which took place on July 24, involved agencies from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, the U.K., and other nations.In addition, law enforcement also seized four servers and nine domains associated with the criminal group.
The authorities were able to track the recovered bitcoin to an account held on a digital currency exchange. Yet that account has been frozen since January of 2022. Since 2022, cybercriminals have hijacked more than $370 million in ransom payments. This mind-boggling figure underscores the far-reaching effects of their illegal actions.
According to the U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA, several BlackSuit actors have requested over $500 million USD in ransom payments. The largest individual ransom demand has gone as high as an astonishing $60 million.
"BlackSuit actors have demanded over $500 million USD in total and the largest individual ransom demand was $60 million," - U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA
John A. Eisenberg, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, emphasized the grave danger posed by the ransomware collective. He stated unequivocally that the crisis requires urgent action.
"The BlackSuit ransomware gang’s persistent targeting of U.S. critical infrastructure represents a serious threat to U.S. public safety," - Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai is a Senior Writer at TechCrunch, where he writes about hacking, cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy. His email is lorenzo@techcrunch.com and encrypted mail via protonmail is +1 917 257 1382 @techcrunch.com. Lorenzo can be reached on Keybase/Telegram at @lorenzofb.
