The U.S. government will give up to $10 million for information about five people who are thought to be high-ranking members of the notorious Russia-backed Conti gang.
This is the first time that the U.S. government has publicly identified a Conti operator. Up to $10 million will be offered for information leading to the identification and location of Target, along with four other alleged Conti members known as "Tramp," "Dandis," "Professor," and "Reshaev."
Up to $5 million will be paid by the RFJ for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any individual in any country who is involved in or attempting to participate in a Conti variant Ransomware incident.
According to the State Department, there have been more than 1,000 operations against U.S. and international critical infrastructure. The president of Costa Rica declared his country to be at war with the ransomware group after 27 government institutions were penetrated.
The gang changed its name to Conti in 2020 and later joined Russia in its war against the Ukrainians. This backfired when a disgruntled Conti member leaked over 170,000 internal chat conversations between other members and the source code for the Ransomware itself.
It is believed that members of the gang have moved into other ransomware operations, including Hive, AvosLocker, BlackCat, and Hello Kitty, as a result of this breach.
According to a May report by Advanced Intel, the only goal of the final attack was to use the platform as a tool of publicity, performing their own death and rebirth.
The RFJ launched a bounty program to gather information on national security threats and to offer rewards for information on cyber criminals. Russia-backed hacking groups are being offered bounties for information.
$10 million was offered by the state for information about those who held a key leadership position.
Fears grow for smaller nations after ransomware attack on Costa Rica escalates
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