Ransomware Attackers Offer Holiday Discounts and Greetings
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Anonymous_Coward:
Ransomware Attackers Offer Holiday Discounts and Greetings:
As ransomware operators look at their organizations as a business, it is not surprising to see them offering discounts or season's greetings to their victims.
Such is the case with the Sodinokibi Ransomware (REvil) who MalwareHunterTeam noticed had changed their ransom note over the holidays to include a new message wishing the victims a "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays".
The REvil ransom note goes on to suggest that instead of being stressed over the holidays, victims should pay the ransom so that they "have a great opportunity to enter the new year, leaving all the bad in the outgoing year. I advise you to write to us as soon as possible and not waste your precious time that you can spend with your family."
I am not sure this will have much effect on getting a victim to pay, but it does add a psychological impact to those who have to deal with them during the holidays.
The Maze operators took it a step further with their holiday celebrations by offering a discount to victims.
In a message to BleepingComputer, the Maze operators stated that they were offering a 25% discount if victims paid between December 25th and December 31st.
"We give 25% discount from 25-th december til 31-th [sic] December (included) for those who pays in this period of time. Merry christmas."
It is not known if they applied this discount retroactively to all of their victims, contacted them via the chat service, or some other means.
As part of a "new year celebration", the Maze operators have also told BleepingComputer that they are discounting the City of Pensacola's ransom to $500,000 and will no longer share their documents.
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