The U.S. Justice Department (DoJ) has officially announced the disruption of the BlackCat ransomware operation and released a decryption tool that more than 500 affected victims can use to regain access to files locked by the malware.
Court documents show that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enlisted the help of a confidential human source (CHS) to act as an affiliate for the BlackCat group and gain access to a web panel used for managing the gang’s victims, in what’s a case of hacking the hackers.
The confiscation effort involved collaboration and assistance from multiple law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Germany, Denmark, Australia, the U.K., Spain, Switzerland, and Austria.
BlackCat, also called ALPHV, GOLD BLAZER, and Noberus, first emerged in December 2021 and has since gone on to be the second most prolific ransomware-as-a-service variant in the world after LockBit. It’s also the first Rust-language-based ransomware strain spotted in the wild.