Kaseya, the firm victim of the attack, is still working hard on the investigation of the incident. The REvil hacker group claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday and let the media know the exact amount of the demand.

The president of the United States of America, Joe Biden, ordered a federal investigation to find those responsible for a ransomware attack that the technology company Kaseya suffered on July 2. On Sunday, July 4, the REvil group claimed to be responsible for the attack and asked for $ 70 million in bitcoin (BTC) as a ransom to release the disrupted information.

According to a report by the company on its website, an exceptionally sophisticated hack affected Kaseya, a company based in Miami that brings IT services to more than 200 companies based in the United States of America and other nations around the globe.

The security company Huntress reported in a statement on its website that it is tracking at least eight providers of this service that were infected. The crime would have come from REvil, an organization that claimed responsibility for the attack on the dark web and asked for a millionaire amount. They are currently demanding a $ 70 million ransom, which equates to roughly 2,082.34 BTC, according to data from CoinGecko.

The attack took place on the VSA tool, used mainly by firms that connect with many branches to handle their data. Criminals encrypted customer information and are requesting a huge amount of money to decrypt it now.

Kaseya’s statement explained in detail that Kaseya’s VSA product had been the victim of a sophisticated cyber-attack. Due to the quick response of Kaseya’s team, this attack met a limit and affected just a small number of customers. The firm also assured that its experts would keep working hard on the subject during the weekend, and a report with updates on the matter might be arriving on July 5.

Ransomware Attacks and the US Government

According to The Block, the order to use federal forces by the US president came to light in a public appearance on the same day the criminals revealed the attack through an announcement.

This level of alert happened because the US government is now giving ransomware attacks a priority similar to terrorism to have more resources when combating possible threats to entities in the government.

Regarding the alleged perpetrators of the attack, Biden said at the time  (right before REvil claimed the attack on Sunday) that the initial theory is that it was not the government of Russia, but it is yet an uncertain factor. This statement by Biden has to do with the fact that the REvil group might have ties to Russia.

This new rating for ransomware hacks followed another attack on a US pipeline, which has left much of the southeast coast without fuel for several days. Finally, that episode ended up with at least 75 BTC reward payment to recover the hacked information.

By: Jenson Nuñez

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