The Conti ransomware gang is wreaking havoc with its assaults around the globe. The latest victim is the Peru MOF – Dirección General de Inteligencia (DIGIMIN), the premier intelligence agency in Peru.
The ransomware group claimed to have stolen 9.41 GB of data from the agency responsible for national, military, and police intelligence, as well as counterintelligence. Targeting intelligence agency could lead to the disclosure of secret and confidential documents and pose a threat to national security.
Last week, the US Department of State offered a reward of up to $15 million for information on the threat actor. The reward includes $10 million for the identification or the location of the leaders of the Conti ransomware gang.
Additionally, $5 million is offered for information that results in the arrest /or conviction of any individual in any country conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in a Conti variant ransomware incident. The reward is offered under the Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP).
"The Conti ransomware group has been responsible for hundreds of ransomware incidents over the past two years," the statement read. "The FBI estimates that as of January 2022, there had been over 1,000 victims of attacks associated with Conti ransomware with victim payouts exceeding $150,000,000, making the Conti ransomware variant the costliest strain of ransomware ever documented."
Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves declared a national cybersecurity emergency over the weekend, following a financially motivated Conti ransomware attack against his administration that has paralyzed the government and economy of the Latin American nation.
Shortly after the incident occurred in April, the former President Carlos Alvarado publicly declined to pay a $10 million ransom demand. In turn, Conti has published nearly all of the 672 GB of data stolen from the government.
After targeting the Costa Rican government, the ransomware group posted a message on their news site that the assault was merely a “demo version.” The group also said the attack was solely motivated by financial gain as well as expressed general political disgust, another signal of more government-directed attacks.
The assaults by the Conti ransomware group are really concerning and even forced a nation to declare a national emergency. Thus, security experts recommended organizations invest in robust preventive strategies, including anti-ransomware solutions, frequent backups of data, network firewalls, and email gateways.