The DarkSide ransomware gang has ‘earned’ a total of $90 million in ransom paid by victims over a period of nine months to several different Bitcoin wallets.
About 10% of their total profit came in just one week after the gang attacked two companies: Colonial Pipeline and Brenntag, the former being the largest oil pipeline system in the US while the latter being a large chemical distribution company in Germany. The amount paid in ransom by these two companies together is about $10 million.
Elliptics, which is a blockchain analytics and compliance solutions company, found and analysed ransom payments made from 47 distinct Bitcoin wallets, with the amount totaling $90 million since October 2020.
If the payments traced by Elliptics are assumed to be the only payments made to DarkSide, their average ransom is $1.9 million, putting them in the line of some of the greediest actors in the industry.
Although the gang launched its operations in August 2020, they have been very active and have seen a significant rise in profits recently.
These groups do not target just large businesses, please make sure you have your layered security in place. If you would like to know more or receive a free consult of your security please call Kelly on 0429727091 to book an appointment.