FBI Recovers Over 7,000 Decryption Keys From Ransomware Service LockBit: Urges Victims To Reclaim Data - 1

FBI Recovers Over 7,000 Decryption Keys From Ransomware Service LockBit: Urges Victims To Reclaim Data

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disrupted LockBit and retrieved over 7,000 decryption keys—bits of information to recover encrypted data—that could help victims get stolen information back.

FBI Cyber Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran made the announcement at the 2024 Boston Conference on Cyber Security on June 5. During his speech, Vondran shared more details on the operation, the criminal charges against alleged administrator Dimitri Khoroshev and six other co-conspirators, and the conclusions of the investigation. The agent also urged victims or people who suspect themselves to be victims of this cyber threat to visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov .

Vorndran explained that Khoroshev, also known under aliases like “LockBitsupp”, “Nerowolfe”, and “Putinkrab” allows cybercriminals to use his LockBit ransomware-as-a-service software to steal private information from businesses and individuals in exchange for 20% of any ransom acquired.

According to Vorndran’s announcement, Khoroshev launched LockBit in 2019. Three years later, in 2022, it became “the most-deployed ransomware variant in the world,” responsible for over 2,400 attacks worldwide and more than 1,800 in the United States alone, inflicting billions of dollars in losses on victims.

The FBI agent also said that LockBit continued to store private data even after promising to delete it after the ransom was paid.

Vorndran affirmed that when a victim pays to prevent a leak they are just preventing the immediate release, not a future exposure. “Even if you get the data back from the criminals, you should assume it may one day be released, or you may one day be extorted again for the same data,” he said.

Just like the cloud company Snowflake recently did after learning about massive data breaches related to its clients, the FBI recommended including multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a security measure as well as other basic practices like keeping safe and encrypted backups, applying effective logging management, as well as taking time to plan ahead for different scenarios and create protocols along with teams and relevant members of the organization.

Google And AR Startup Magic Leap Announce New Partnership - 2

Google And AR Startup Magic Leap Announce New Partnership

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

Google and Magic Leap—the augmented reality startup founded in 2010 —are building a strategic partnership to create immersive experiences. Magic Leap published a press release last week explaining that this new “multi-faceted, strategic technology partnership” will allow both companies to combine expertise and provide new solutions for the AR market.

“We look forward to bringing together Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing with our technologies to bring a wider range of immersive experiences to market,” said Shahram Izadi, Vice President and General Manager of AR/XR at Google. “By combining efforts, we can foster the future of the XR ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings.”

According to Reuters , Google is already an investor in the AR company—owned primarily by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund— and both companies refused to say whether this new partnership would aim to develop new AR devices for users or not.

During the last Google I/O event where Google announced major AI updates, the company showed a demo where users recognized smart glasses that looked like Google Glasses. However, it has not been confirmed if Google is building new devices, and it hasn’t been disclosed either if this new partnership will have a relation to the development of these products.

In the meantime, Magic Leap has shared the news on its social media channels and website along with the statements, without giving many details.

“This partnership accelerates the transformative power of AR by combining our extensive optics capabilities with Google’s technologies to continue to advance immersive experiences to the developer ecosystem and for customers,” said Julie Larson-Green, Magic Leap’s Chief Technology Officer. “We are looking forward to expanding the potential of XR – blending the physical world with valuable, contextually relevant solutions.”

Those curious to understand the goals and possible consequences of this new partnership will have to wait for new developments and announcements in the near future.