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The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that helps identify or find the leaders of the Conti ransomware gang that is victimizing Americans.
The department is releasing an additional $5 million for information that results in the arrest or conviction of anyone trying to participate in a Conti cyberattack anywhere in the world.
“The Conti ransomware group has been responsible for hundreds of ransomware incidents over the past two years,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday. “The FBI estimates that as of January 2022, there were more than 1,000 victims of Conti ransomware-related attacks, with victim payments exceeding $150,000,000, making the Conti ransomware variant the most costly ransomware strain ever documented.”
Conti was first spotted in December 2019 and gained notoriety in the US, according to cybersecurity firm DomainTools. The FBI issued a warning in May 2021 that it discovered 16 Conti ransomware attacks targeting US healthcare and first responder networks in the previous year. published. .
The ransomware group’s targets are not specific to the US According to the State Department, Conti is responsible for a ransomware attack on the Costa Rican government last month.
Conti also sided with the Russian government in its invasion of Ukraine in February. The group posted a side-by-Russia message online before changing the message to withdraw its open support for Russia.
The gang’s internal communications were later leaked, and speculation suggested that a Ukrainian ransomware operator, who disagreed with the gang’s Russian sympathizers, was responsible for the disclosure.
The leaked internal chats also included some hints that Russia may have an influence on the group members. Christo Grozev, Russia inspector of the Bellingcat monitoring group, tweeted that the leaked information led his team to conclude that Conti was targeting a Bellingcat participant at the direction of Russia’s Federal Security Service FSB.
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