The Department Of State Offers $10 Million Price Reward On BlackCat Information
Today, the Department of State is officially announcing rewarding price offers of up to $10 million for any leading information to the identification or location of any individual in the BlackCat group who holds a key leadership role.
Moreover, it is increasingly clear that the Department of State is interested in the key presence of members of the Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) group behind the ALPHV/Blackcat Ransomware variant.
Furthermore, with more than $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone taking part in or plotting or making an effort to participate in a ransomware attack using the ALPHV/Blackcat variant.
ALPHV Threats Sounds Urgency
Statistically, ALPHV/Blackcat compromised over 1,000 victim cooperations and agencies globally.
In December 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation disrupted ALPHV/Blackcat’s operations, by circulating a system decryption tool invented by the FBI that assisted dozens of targets with restoring the impacted computer systems and saving victims from ransom demands amounting to roughly $99 million.
Additionally, the reward offers complement the Department of Justice and the FBI’s recent announcement of cooperation with law enforcement agency groups from the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Spain, and Denmark, to launch a disruption campaign against the infamous ransomware group ALPHV/Blackcat.
The Department of State provided the following details, ‘Kindly direct information in response to the reward offer to the following Tor-based tip line’ (Tor browser required): he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion.
They offered the reward under the Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP), which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally and bring fugitives to justice
ALPHV/Blackcat Recent Cyber Breach
The ransomware operators claim to have pilfered 190GB of data from the Trans-Northern Pipeline. Subsequently, Trans-Northern Pipeline released an acknowledging statement that a cybersecurity incident had occurred in November 2023, affecting a limited number of internal systems.
According to the statement, they promptly curbed the incident with the assistance of cybersecurity experts and proceeded to maintain the safety of their pipeline operations.
Despite the breach, Trans-Northern Pipeline asserts that there have been no unusual interruptions to its pipeline operations.
