GandCrab authors stop working: they claim to have stolen enough
Last Friday, at one of the closed hacker forums, a message appeared about the closure of the Raand (Ransomware-as-a-Service) GandCrab service:
We personally earned more than $ 150,000,000 a year. We successfully cashed and legalized this money in various areas of the white business both in real life and on the Internet.
After almost a year and a half since the advent of the GandCrab malware, its creators decided to curtail their business and instruct partners (adverts) to stop distributing the malware, as decryption keys will no longer be provided.
All the best ever ends.
Over a year of working with us, people have earned more than $ 2 billion, we have become a household name in the underground sphere in the direction of the crypto locker. Earnings with us per week averaged $ 2,500,000.
The authors of the ransomware posted in the signature quotes from antivirus vendors about their software:
And in the two months the ransomware crew has been in business, criminals have earned an impressive $ 600,000. Kaspersky
GandCrab is the most prominent ransomware of 2018. By the numbers this ransomware is huge Check Point
GandCrab emerged in late January and already it's the third most prevalent ransomware family. Microsoft
GandCrab has already made 50K victims worldwide, making it one of the most aggressive forms of ransomware so far this year Europol
GandCrab appeared recently - January 28, 2018. The ransomware replaced the notorious ransomware such as TeslaCrypt, CryptoWall and Spora, and became one of the leading ransomware. Despite the flaws found in encryption, the authors quickly released new versions - the current branch v. five.
We are retiring well-deserved. We have proved that retaliation does not come for committing evil deeds. We have proved that in a year you can earn money for a lifetime. We have proved that you can become number one not in your own words, but by the recognition of other people.
I think that many victims will not agree with such a "rainbow" picture that the attackers presented, and retaliation will be inevitable.
And to “hotheads” who want to participate in something similar, I recall the existence of 273 articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (and similar ones).