Security News > 2022 > August > US offers reward “up to $10 million” for information about the Conti gang
Conti is the name of a well-known ransomware gang - more precisely, what's known as a ransomware-as-a-service gang, where the ransomware code, and the blackmail demands, and the receipt of extortion payments from desperate victims are handled by a core group.
About two years ago, the REvil ransomware gang put up a cool $1,000,000 as front money in an underground hacker-recruiting forum, trying to entice new affiliates to join their cybercriminal capers.
As we pointed out at the time, the implication was that at least some affiliates in the Conti ransomware scene were not being paid 70% of the actual ransom amount collected, but 70% of an imaginary but lower number reported to them by the core Conti gang members.
Conti operators typically steal victims' files and encrypt the servers and workstations in an effort to force a ransom payment from the victim.
Although this suggests that any individual whistleblower in the Conti saga is unlikely to net the whole $10 million on their own, there's still plenty of reward money there for the taking.
Is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.