- Joined
- May 15, 2016
- Messages
- 14,028
- Likes
- 2,643
- Points
- 1,730
How the bank showed that it was not going to pay the ransom
After the Hive ransomware attack, the Bank of Zambia made it clear to the cybercriminal that it was not going to pay the ransom by sending him a photo of male genitalia.
According to the Bank of Zambia, a recent cyberattack resulted in technical failures of the bank's systems.
“The Bank of Zambia wishes to inform the public that on Monday, May 9, 2022, some of the applications in the bank's IT system experienced a partial outage. The breach affected the IT system of the exchange office and the website, and was due to an alleged cyber incident. At the moment, the systems have already been fully restored,” the bank said in a press release.
The attack was carried out using the Hive ransomware. The subject of the threat claimed to have encrypted the network storage (Network Attached Storage, NAS) of the bank. Instead of paying the ransom, the bank representative mocked the attacker's nickname "14m3-sk1llz" and sent him a picture of a male member.
“Oh **** and this member and stop blocking bank networks thinking you are making money, learn how to make money,” the bank added to the sent image.
According to experts, the chat could have been captured by hackers unknown to each other. MalwareHunterTeam security researcher posted a survey and asked people's opinion on the situation. Most of the respondents said that the message was actually sent by the bank.
“If an image of a member appears on the bank page or in the chat of the ransomware victim, it means that:
A: Someone accessed the chat.
B: The victim does not plan to pay the ransom and therefore sends a “good” message to the cybercriminal,” wrote a MalwareHunterTeam researcher.
According to the technical director of the bank Greg Nsofu, the main systems of the bank are protected and there is no need to interact with the attacker.
“So we have clearly shown the cybercriminal where to go,” Nsofu added and confirmed that the image was sent by a bank representative.
Ransomware remains a serious problem for users and the only way to mitigate the threat is to simply not pay the ransom and restore data from a backup. Failure to pay ransoms, increased law enforcement action, and government sanctions increase the chance of ransomware disappearing.
__________________
After the Hive ransomware attack, the Bank of Zambia made it clear to the cybercriminal that it was not going to pay the ransom by sending him a photo of male genitalia.
According to the Bank of Zambia, a recent cyberattack resulted in technical failures of the bank's systems.
“The Bank of Zambia wishes to inform the public that on Monday, May 9, 2022, some of the applications in the bank's IT system experienced a partial outage. The breach affected the IT system of the exchange office and the website, and was due to an alleged cyber incident. At the moment, the systems have already been fully restored,” the bank said in a press release.
The attack was carried out using the Hive ransomware. The subject of the threat claimed to have encrypted the network storage (Network Attached Storage, NAS) of the bank. Instead of paying the ransom, the bank representative mocked the attacker's nickname "14m3-sk1llz" and sent him a picture of a male member.
“Oh **** and this member and stop blocking bank networks thinking you are making money, learn how to make money,” the bank added to the sent image.
According to experts, the chat could have been captured by hackers unknown to each other. MalwareHunterTeam security researcher posted a survey and asked people's opinion on the situation. Most of the respondents said that the message was actually sent by the bank.
“If an image of a member appears on the bank page or in the chat of the ransomware victim, it means that:
A: Someone accessed the chat.
B: The victim does not plan to pay the ransom and therefore sends a “good” message to the cybercriminal,” wrote a MalwareHunterTeam researcher.
According to the technical director of the bank Greg Nsofu, the main systems of the bank are protected and there is no need to interact with the attacker.
“So we have clearly shown the cybercriminal where to go,” Nsofu added and confirmed that the image was sent by a bank representative.
Ransomware remains a serious problem for users and the only way to mitigate the threat is to simply not pay the ransom and restore data from a backup. Failure to pay ransoms, increased law enforcement action, and government sanctions increase the chance of ransomware disappearing.
__________________