We made it bigly now, gang

The bidding war is real — we're big cash money, gang

Per BleepinComputer, a ransomware affiliate from Netwalker ransomware group has been sentenced. He has received 20 years in prison.

It appears the defacto standard in the United States judicial system for ransomware operators (based on arrests of REvil affiliates, Netwalker affiliates, etc) is roughly 20 years in prison. Previous arrests also have shown assets seized (cryptocurrency), and restitution.

Although, the restitution part would be difficult because prison pay in the United States (varying) is approx. $1.41/hour (some as low as $0.03/hr) and some ransomware affiliates owe millions in restitution to victims. This means, ideally, a high paid prisoner would have to work 709,000 hours (29,550 days, 80 years) to pay victims back if they owed $1,000,000 in restitution.

tl;dr if caught doing ransomware, the United States government will take your money, ban you from electronics, sentence you to 20 years in prison, and may you pay back millions at a rate of $1/hr

tl;dr tl;dr if caught doing ransomware, your life is ruined forever (or about 30% of your adult life, depending on how long you live, or unless you "unalive" yourself in prison)

Conversely, we've seen information stealer malware authors receive 5 years in prison.

1. Judges fucking HATE ransomware, they will throw the book at you (slang, meaning be as harsh as possible)

2. It appears it also depends on how much you're willing to snitch and/or beg

"They'll never catch me if I'm in Israel, with this funny hat and fake moustache" — Rostislav Panev, developer and core member of Lockbit ransomware group

(one of the developers of lockbit ransomware group was arrested in israel)

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-charges-dual-russian-and-israeli-national-developer-lockbit-ransomware-group

Ransomware payloads often skip over executable files to save on time and performance.

Replace every file extension on your computer with .exe, .dll, or .sys to prevent ransomware attacks.

The developer of Lockbit ransomware (and a core member) sure lived a beautiful and cozy life. He seems so happy and relaxed knowing the people using his weapon were ransoming childrens hospitals and critical infrastructure.

The United States government will be very nice to him when he's extradited from Israel (they won't be nice at all, they're going to make his life an inescapable hell).

> write malware proof of concept for Black Mass III
> work on project for a few weeks
> Last Modified: September 18th, 2024

Incomplete project that will be thrown into the trash: https://pastebin.com/raw/3VYrcNYt

vx-underground Black Mass Research Group presents: Minegrief.

tl;dr a computer worm that targets minecraft

https://github.com/blackmassgroup/minegrief

Today a bunch of YouTubers began discussing a Browser plugin called "Honey". Their discussions revolves around the investigative research of a YouTuber named MegaLag.

Commentators are referring to it as a scam. Scam in this context isn't quite accurate enough because it is deceptive to advertisers, web stores, AND consumers, but also the browser plugin itself functions fundamentally similar to malware payloads.

tl;dr plugin extension modifies cookies on page checkout to steal commission from other people. The idea in itself is so novel, we want to introduce the entire "Honey" company into Black Mass Volume III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk

Honey™ ransomware group 😂😂😂

This Christmas Eve we're relaxing at HQ, enjoying the Christmas classics, and drinking hot chocolate (and also cat).

A true blessing.

Song: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

This is relevant to us because one of the bunnies is actually a malware researcher

Every single one of you is invited to our Christmas feast.

We only have 1 turkey.

It'll be difficult to split it between all 380,000 of you. We also don't have enough cups, plates, or silverware.

We also don't know where you're all going to sit... But you're invited!