An interview with the new ransom group BlackMatter

An interview with the new ransom group BlackMatter

 A few days ago, the BlackMatter ransomware hackers appeared and started posting advertisements on various hacking forums in the dark web, in their quest to recruit the best hackers, and stated that they combined the best features of the hidden ransom groups REvil and DarkSide.

 In a press interview with a representative of the BlackMatter Group, Dmitriy Smilianets, an expert at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, spoke about how BlackMatter learned from the past mistakes of other ransomware groups and this was part of the meeting:

 Dmitriy Smilients: You've come out recently as we know, there have been no public attacks with BlackMatter yet. Since when did you start developing your own software?

 BlackMatter representative: You judge that with our public blog, and in fact there have been attacks, and the companies that we attacked are already communicating with us. As long as the negotiations are successful, we do not post on the blog's homepage.

 The "ransomware" product has been in development for six months, it may sound simple (based on the blog or contact page), but it's not - what users see publicly is the tip of the iceberg.

 Before starting the project, we studied previous ransomware products in detail and the executable partially integrated the ideas of LockBit, REvil and DarkSide.

 Dmitriy Smilients: Recently, the biggest ransom groups DarkSide, REvil, Avaddon and BABUK have all but disappeared from the scene. Many researchers believe that this is due to the attitude of the high command of the United States and Russia to ransomware attacks, is this true? Do you think that your program will have the same fate?

 BlackMatter Actor: Yeah, those names getting off the market has been largely related to the geopolitical situation on the world stage. First of all, we monitor the political situation and receive information from other sources. When designing our infrastructure, we took into account all these factors and can say that we can withstand the offensive cyber capabilities of the United States.

 Dmitriy Smilients: There are obviously many talented professionals on your team, why are these talents engaged in subversive activities? Have you tried working as a legal penetration tester?

 BlackMatter representative: We do not deny that these actions are destructive, but if we look deeper, as a result of these problems, new technologies are being developed and created, if everything is going well everywhere, there will be no room for development.

 There is one life and we will take everything from it, our actions do not harm individuals and target companies only, companies always have the ability to pay money and get all their data back.

 We have not been involved in the work as legal penetration testers and we believe that such work cannot bring appropriate financial reward.

 Dmitriy Smilients: Tell me a secret.

 BlackMatter Actor: No secrets, but we believe in our motherland, love our families, and make money for our kids.