MonsterCloud Owner Accused of Billing Over $19M While Secretly Paying Ransoms to Decrypt Data
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The U.S. Department of Justice has announced charges against a 50-year-old dual U.S. and Israeli national accused of defrauding ransomware victims. Zohar Pinhasi, who also goes by the aliases Zack Silver and Zack Green, allegedly operated under the pretense of recovering encrypted data using proprietary tools, while secretly paying the ransomware actors for decryptors and billing victims far more than those payments cost.
Authorities say the scheme generated over $19 million in fraudulent billing. Pinhasi faces two counts of wire fraud and one count of wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the operation.
According to the announcement, the alleged conduct centered on MonsterCloud, the recovery service Pinhasi owned. Rather than deploying in-house technology to break or bypass encryption as claimed, he is accused of negotiating with the same attackers holding the victims' data and paying them for decryption keys or tools, then passing the cost on to clients at a significant markup.
No specific CVE IDs or software vulnerability identifiers were referenced in the charging announcement, as the case concerns alleged fraudulent business practices rather than a technical exploit.
Key points:
- Defendant: Zohar Pinhasi, also known as Zack Silver and Zack Green
- Charges: two counts of wire fraud, one count of wire fraud conspiracy
- Alleged scheme: billing victims over $19 million while secretly paying ransomware operators for decryptors
- Entity involved: MonsterCloud
- Agency announcing charges: U.S. Department of Justice
Affected parties are primarily the ransomware victims who engaged MonsterCloud's recovery services. There are no software versions, indicators of compromise, or patch details to list, since this is a fraud prosecution rather than a product vulnerability.
Source: The Hacker News
Do you think cases like this will push more organizations to verify how recovery vendors actually obtain decryptors before signing a contract?
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