On October 3, Bank Brasilia, a Brazil-based government-affiliated bank, fell victim to ransomware.

The hacker group demanded that the bank pay 50 bitcoins as a reward for not leaking user data.

According to local media TechmundoA hacker named “Crydat” called them to inform them that the bank had to pay the equivalent of R$5.2 million before 15:00 on October 6.

Bank Brasilia has not officially commented on the hacker’s demands.

Subsequently, investigations into the case began by the Special Police Department for the Suppression of Internet Crimes.

Brazil’s BRB Bank Pays 50 Bitcoin After Targeted by Sophisticated Ransomware Attack:

According to anonymous sources who spoke with Tecnomundo, the hackers used the “LockBit” ransomware program of one of the largest international ransomware groups, which operates under the same name as its program.

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As of the beginning of 2021, Lockbit has targeted approximately 350 organizations worldwide.

The LockBit ransomware group is one of the leading criminal gangs specialized in information theft and extortion of large corporations, and has been operating in the shadows since 2019.

Currently, the group is responsible for 40% of all ransomware attacks after the removal of the Conti group.

Recently, the group upgraded its LockBit software to version 3.0. They also offer a reward program of up to $1 million (which can be paid via privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Zcash) to those who report vulnerabilities, improvement ideas and other actions.

This criminal group has carried out several attacks in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Panama and Argentina, where they recently attacked a health care service network established in 1972, extracting about 140 gigabytes of information about patients, doctors and their affiliates.

While they are demanding $300,000 in cryptocurrency to keep the data confidential.

But OSDE did not pay the amount, which led the group to post all the information on its website.

Several criminals use cryptocurrency in Brazil:

Brazil is one of the Latin American countries with the most cryptocurrency scams, so much so that the Brazilian justice system has had to work with the FBI and the CIA to bolster its own forces and improve tracking technologies.

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According to the data published by the analysis platform SonicWall, since 2021, Brazil has become one of the preferred destinations for ransomware groups.

During 2021, hackers managed to steal more than $33 million in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, placing Brazil among the four countries most affected by ransomware.

A survey conducted by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky revealed that 56% of Brazilian companies have suffered from a ransomware attack, and 80% confirmed that they would not be willing to pay any ransom.

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And 78% of the companies that were attacked indicated that if they were attacked again, they would pay a ransom for their data.

This appears to follow the general trend observed among ransomware victims in other countries.

Although it is not right to pay hackers because that would finance a criminal organization, disclosure of personal information held by banks could economically affect millions of users.

Therefore, it is difficult to find a balance in this case.

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