#RUSSIAN HACKING SITES SOFTWARE#
#RUSSIAN HACKING SITES CODE#

The group has attacked US oil and gas infrastructure four times in the past six months, according to data from the cybercriminal investigation firm DarkTracer, leading some to wonder whether the Kremlin pushed DarkSide to carry out the attacks to test vulnerabilities in the US energy system or embarrass its geopolitical rival. Others, however, have begun to wonder whether DarkSide secretly has been working at the behest of the Russian government. вЂњFrom today we intoduce moderation and check each company that our partners want to to avoid social consequences in the future.вЂќ Was the Kremlin behind the DarkSide attack? вЂњOur goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society,вЂќ the group wrote. In a May 10 statement, DarkSide seemed to indicate that the Colonial Pipeline attack was the result of an affiliate gone rogue.

#RUSSIAN HACKING SITES SOFTWARE#

DarkSide is particularly hard to control because, in addition to carrying out its own attacks, it sells its hacking software as a service to other criminal groups who want to extort companies. One explanation for the ill-advised attack is that hacking syndicates-much like the privateers of yore-are loose cannons.

The attack seems to be a serious miscalculation on the part of the cyber criminals. This attack is of such magnitude that it really cannot go unanswered.вЂќ вЂњIn the past have managed to carry on their activities without government focusing particularly strongly on them, and there havenвЂ™t been any sanctions imposed on countries which harbor them,вЂќ said Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. All of this is bad for DarkSideвЂ™s business, and could become an irritant for the Russian authorities who have turned a blind eye to the groupвЂ™s activities. The scale of the attack, and its impact on critical US energy infrastructure, immediately attracted the attention of US intelligence agencies. вЂњWe see that around the world: Depending on which country an actor group is coming from, they tend to stay away from targeting their own.вЂќ вЂњRussian actors tend not to target their own country, mainly because they donвЂ™t want law enforcement coming after them,вЂќ said Jon Clay, vice president of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro.

Features like this help hackers avoid the ire of their host governments, and ensure that they donвЂ™t wear out their welcome in their safe harbor.

#RUSSIAN HACKING SITES CODE#

Many of these groups, including DarkSide, slip lines of code into their hacking software that check to see if a victimвЂ™s computer uses Russian as its default language if so, the software automatically stops the attack. These cyber-gangs steal companiesвЂ™ data and hold it hostage in exchange for ransoms ranging from $200,000 to $20 million.

DarkSide is one of the many for-profit ransomware groups that have proliferated and thrived in Russia. Unlike pirates, who were вЂњ enemies of all mankindвЂќ and liable to be captured and killed wherever they went, privateers could safely use one of the major powersвЂ™ ports as their base of operations. In that era, a captain could obtain a letter of marque from a colonial government officially authorizing him to pillage and plunder merchant ships belonging to rival nations-so long as he left his own countryвЂ™s ships alone. In many ways, DarkSide resembles the privateers that terrorized the seas during the golden age of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Russian hacking sites