Since 2018, the creators of Ryuk ransomware have attacked at least 235 hospitals and psychiatric inpatient facilities in the United States, demanding a ransom to restore files. The Wall Street Journal reports.
In all medical facilities, the hackers’ activities disrupted services and put patients’ lives at risk. Some of the victims paid the Ryuk operators millions of dollars in total.
Eastern European cybercriminals, who, according to some sources, are backed by Russia’s FSB, target large companies and government organisations.
The ransomware spreads via email phishing, in which the TrickBot trojan is involved. Recently the US authorities arrested a TrickBot operator – a 55-year-old woman from Rostov-on-Don.
In the past year alone, Ryuk hackers earned about $150 million in cryptocurrency.
More than $1 million of this amount was moved through the Binance exchange.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — the full feed of news, ForkLog — the most important news, infographics and opinions.