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This story was initially printed by ProPublica.
On February 25, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, a prolific ransomware gang known as Conti made a proclamation on its darkish web site. It was an unusually political assertion for a cybercrime group: Conti pledged its “full assist of Russian authorities” and mentioned it will use “all potential sources to strike again on the essential infrastructures” of Russia’s opponents.
Maybe sensing that such a public alliance with the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin may trigger issues, Conti tempered its declaration later that day. “We don’t ally with any authorities and we condemn the continued warfare,” it wrote in a follow-up assertion that nonetheless vowed retaliation towards the USA if it used cyberwarfare to focus on “any Russian-speaking area of the world.”
