More than $2.4 million worth of Bitcoin was confirmed by FBI Dallas to have been nabbed from Chaos ransomware member "Hors" in an April operation, reports BleepingComputer.
Hors had used the sequestered cryptocurrency wallet to store extortion payments from attacks against organizations across Texas and other locations, according to the FBI. The FBI's disclosure comes days after the U.S. Justice Department moved to request the forfeiture of the seized Bitcoin. The Chaos ransomware operation, which originates from the Conti ransomware gang, has been reported by Cisco Talos researchers to be a BlackSuit ransomware rebrand owing to encryption, ransom note, and attack toolkit similarities. Such a development comes after BlackSuit's dark web extortion sites have been disrupted as part of the international law enforcement operation dubbed Operation Checkmate. BlackSuit itself was a rebrand of the Royal ransomware gang, also known as Quantum, which had examined the BlackSuit encryptor over two years ago.
Hors had used the sequestered cryptocurrency wallet to store extortion payments from attacks against organizations across Texas and other locations, according to the FBI. The FBI's disclosure comes days after the U.S. Justice Department moved to request the forfeiture of the seized Bitcoin. The Chaos ransomware operation, which originates from the Conti ransomware gang, has been reported by Cisco Talos researchers to be a BlackSuit ransomware rebrand owing to encryption, ransom note, and attack toolkit similarities. Such a development comes after BlackSuit's dark web extortion sites have been disrupted as part of the international law enforcement operation dubbed Operation Checkmate. BlackSuit itself was a rebrand of the Royal ransomware gang, also known as Quantum, which had examined the BlackSuit encryptor over two years ago.
