REvil Ransomware spokesman releases an interview on recent attacks

The REvil ransomware operators said in an interview on the “Russian OSINT” Telegram channel that they accidentally targeted United States-based firms.

The recent attack against JBS Foods conducted by REvil ransomware gang (aka Sodinokibi) triggered the response of US authorities, US DoJ announced its decision to equate investigations into ransomware attacks with investigations into terrorism in the wake of the recent hacks.

Now the group decided to clarify that it was not politically motivated and that they had no intent to target United States-based firms. A spokesperson for the gang released an interview on a YouTube and Telegram channel called Russian OSINT on Friday, he said that they accidentally targeted United States-based firms but anyway they are not afraid of being considered a cyber-terrorist group.

The spokesman explained that they were targeting unnamed entities in Brazil and were not interested in breaching US-based firms, they were surprised by the response of the US authorities.

The US government plans to forbid victims from paying the ransom, a move that according to the spokesman of the REvil gang would not be a deterrent for its operations.

“The group originally restricted U.S. targets in cyberattacks.” reported the ThreatPost website. “In the interview the anonymous REvil gang member said that in light of U.S. actions and posturing to retaliate for the JBS Foods attack, the group will now lift the restriction on attacking U.S. targets.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, REvil ransomware)