Security News > 2021 > June > Clop Gang Partners Laundered $500 Million in Ransomware Payments
The cybercrime ring that was apprehended last week in connection with Clop ransomware attacks against dozens of companies in the last few months helped launder money totaling $500 million for several malicious actors through a plethora of illegal activities.
"The group - also known as FANCYCAT - has been running multiple criminal activities: distributing cyber attacks; operating a high-risk exchanger; and laundering money from dark web operations and high-profile cyber attacks such as Cl0p and Petya ransomware," popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance said Thursday.
Binance's insights into the investigation have now revealed that FANCYCAT was responsible for cashing out and laundering cryptocurrency illicitly obtained by the Clop ransomware cartel by breaching and extorting victims, confirming earlier reports from Intel 471.
Clop is one of several ransomware groups that hack into organizations, launch ransomware that encrypts files and servers, and then demand an extortion payment in return for a digital key needed to unlock access to the systems.
"In a majority of the cases associated with illicit blockchain flows coming onto exchanges, the exchange is not harboring the actual criminal group themselves, but rather being used as a middleman to launder stolen profits," security researchers from Binance said, adding the criminals take advantage of the exchanges' liquidity, diverse digital asset offerings, and well-developed APIs to facilitate cyber attacks.
The development comes during a period of intense scrutiny of the risks posed by ransomware, which has ballooned from a lucrative financial crime to a national security threat, grounding critical infrastructure to a halt and causing severe disruptions, necessitating that bitcoin trails be tracked to "Follow the money" and fight the spiraling problem.