As reported by The Times, US authorities have offered a $15 million (€14.7 million) reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of members of the Conti group, the criminals blamed for last year’s crippling ransomware attack on the HSE. The US State Department has also offered a bounty of up to $5 million for information on anyone who has conspired with the collective of Russian and Ukrainian hackers.
The Conti group is being investigated by the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB), working alongside Britain’s National Crime Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.
“The Conti ransomware is one of the most prolific sets of malware due to the speed in which it encrypts data and spreads to other systems. This bounty is clearly a cry for help as more needs to be done to clamp down on the illicit groups using it who, like many, are so good at evading capture. Bounties like this are a shot in the dark and can often come to nothing but this suggests there is little other help in locating the evidence to shut down such a tight operation of well experienced hackers.”