Security News > 2020 > January > Canadian insurer paid for ransomware decryptor. Now it's hunting the scum down
A Canadian insurance business struck by ransomware paid off the crooks via a cyber insurance policy - and their English reinsurers, having shelled out 109.25 Bitcoins, want it back from the alleged blackmailers.
After infection the unnamed Canadian company suffered a total lockdown of all of its systems and asked its reinsurance firm to pay the ransom so it could get back on its feet.
Although the full judgment was de-anonymised in January, having originally been handed down in December 2019, the judge did not lift an anonymity order on both the Canadian and English insurance companies.
Mr Justice Bryan of London's High Court said: "Whilst some of the Bitcoin was transferred into 'fiat currency' as it is known, a substantial proportion of the Bitcoin, namely, 96 Bitcoins, were transferred to a specified address. In the present instance, the address where the 96 Bitcoins were sent is linked to the exchange known as Bitfinex operated by the third and fourth defendants."
At least one study has found that less than half of companies paying off ransomware actually get their files back.