The United States is offering a $10 million bounty to anyone who can provide information with clear links that demonstrate foreign government involvement in the Hive ransomware. Hive is a ransomware strain which has been used to threaten victims and demand hefty ransom payments in order to unlock their data.
The news was announced by the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program, which said that information concerning links between criminal activity and foreign government could result in a reward of up to $10 million.
The information the US is looking for has to relate to the cryptocurrency wallet associated with the Hive ransomware and specify “malicious operatives and their corporate or government sponsors or benefactors.”
“This investigation is being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybercrime Investigations Unit, in cooperation with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and the FBI’s Cyber Task Force in their respective regions,” said the US Department of State.
Hive is a highly-sophisticated ransomware strain which first emerged in April 2020, targeting both individuals and businesses. Analysis of the ransomware identified a set of techniques and tools that can be used to identify overlaps between Hive and other ransomware strains previously used by nation-state actors.
The US Department of State believes the money in the cyber criminals’ wallet is the result of ransomware attack victims paying the ransom demands, and that information about entities involved in the malware’s development, deployment, and illicit use can be obtained through “independent research and intelligence sources.”
According to the US Department of State, the ransomware operators frequently kidnap or threaten their victims to boost their ransom payments, although information about this criminal behavior is scarce.
The US is therefore running a campaign to give security researchers and other independent investigators the opportunity to provide information that could shed light on the activities of malicious actors and the role of nation-states in their schemes.
The US Department of State is running its cybersecurity reward program in collaboration with the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and the FBI’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Criminal Investigative Task Force.
By offering $10 million in rewards for information about foreign governments’ links to the Hive ransomware, the US hopes to incentivize the identification of malicious actors and deter future attacks. Security researchers who are interested in participating in this program can submit their findings directly to the Rewards for Justice Program.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 20:42:02 +0000