Inside a Ransomware Negotiation: This Is How 'Asshole' Russian Hackers Shake Down Companies

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Shannon Vavra
@shanvav
EXCLU: I got my hands on a Russian-speaking ransomware gang's negotiations with a victim company this year—they demanded millions of dollars: "We will never go lower and this offer is valid for 48 hours. Keep it or leave it.” An inside look @thedailybeast

Inside a Ransomware Negotiation: This Is How ‘Asshole’ Russian Hackers Shake Down Companies
The Daily Beast obtained transcripts of a victim negotiating with a ransomware gang this summer, just as the Biden administration began to grapple with an onslaught of attacks.
thedailybeast.com
6:55 AM · Aug 2, 2021

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-a-ransomware-negotiation-this-is-how-asshole-russian-hackers-keep-shaking-down-companies?ref=home

“$1.1m. We will never go lower and this offer is valid for 48 hours. Keep it or leave it.”

That’s the message a small retail business on the East Coast of the U.S. received earlier this summer when it realized it was being held up by a Russian-speaking ransomware gang.

At first the hackers demanded more than $2 million—an overhead that would have left the victim company reeling, according to transcripts of the negotiations with the ransomware gang The Daily Beast obtained. It wasn’t going to work, even with the hackers’ dangling offer that the millions of dollars would be accepted in exchange for unlocking the business’ systems and a promise to not publish or sell their stolen files.

So instead of coughing up the demand right away, the victims started groveling. They pleaded with the hackers, noting they didn’t have cybersecurity insurance and couldn’t afford the demand.

*snip*