A ransomware group known as BlackSuit has had its systems shut down and around $1 million in cryptocurrency taken by US and international authorities.
The Department of Justice revealed on August 11 that the operation took place on July 24.
US agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, IRS, and Secret Service, worked alongside police forces in the UK, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, Lithuania, France, and Ireland.
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BlackSuit, a spin-off from the Royal ransomware group, has been active since 2023. Authorities stated that the group focused on sectors essential to public services and daily operations, such as healthcare, government offices, and factories.
The group relied on ransomware that not only locked files but also threatened to leak data, a method used to pressure victims into paying.
According to investigators, BlackSuit has targeted over 450 organizations in the US since 2022. Payments sent to the group’s wallets have totaled more than $370 million, with ransom amounts usually between $1 million and $10 million.
In 2023, one victim transferred 49.3 BTC
$120,155.02
, worth about $1.4 million at the time, to retrieve access to its systems. Some of that Bitcoin moved through a crypto exchange several times before the funds were frozen by the platform in early 2024.
Officials later identified $1 million from those transactions and seized it with a court order.
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) reported that it froze assets worth about ₹42.8 crore (around $4.8 million) connected to Chirag Tomar, jailed in the US for a crypto scam. What did the agency say? Read the full story.
