Record Haul of Ransomware Secrets Spills Online Thanks to Gang Drama
A trove of leaked data offers an inside look into Conti, one of the world’s most notorious cyber gangs.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
On Feb. 25, a notorious ransomware group known as Conti expressed support for Russia as the country invaded Ukraine. It turned out to be a bad idea: days later, a massive trove of the gang’s secrets was leaked.
The data contains details on specific hacking campaigns, Bitcoin wallets used by the gang and ruminations on the future of cryptocurrency as a tool for money laundering. In one chat message, a member of Conti expressed fury that someone associated with their group had targeted a website inside Russia ("Such d---heads," this person called colleagues). Another detailed an attempted hack on a contributor to an investigative journalism outlet probing the suspected poisoning of a prominent Kremlin critic (“Bro don’t forget about Navalny").