The recent ransomware attack against Olympia Community Unit School District 16 (Olympia CUSD16) in Illinois has raised pertinent questions about the morality of cybercriminals. Despite the malicious intent of these gangs, it seems that some of them are capable of showing a degree of empathy towards their victims.
The LockBit ransomware group is a notorious criminal network that offers an effective ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ (RaaS) business. It allows affiliates to deploy its ransomware and use its infrastructure when launching extortion attacks against businesses and organisations. On this occasion, LockBit’s affiliates had targeted the school district with the malicious ransomware, and the group had even set up a leak site on the dark web to count down to the release of stolen data unless a ransom was paid.
Surprisingly, however, LockBit’s admin updated the leak site with an apology to the school district, offering a free decryption key and claiming that the affiliate responsible had been barred from using the ransomware in future. The admin expressed remorse for the hacking, citing that the stolen data had been deleted.
This case has certainly raised some interesting questions about whether ransomware gangs do actually have a heart. It appears that, in this instance at least, LockBit has taken a step back and shown a degree of empathy towards the innocent school children who were affected by the attack. It is not often that we see cybercriminals express remorse or take action to lessen the pain of their victims.
In conclusion, it appears that there are some occasions where ransomware gangs do show a degree of compassion towards their victims. In the case of Olympia CUSD16, LockBit has demonstrated a level of remorse and offered a free decryption key, suggesting that criminal groups like these are capable of showing empathy towards their victims.
Key Points:
• LockBit ransomware group is a notorious criminal network that offers a ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ (RaaS) service.
• LockBit’s affiliates had targeted the school district with the malicious ransomware.
• LockBit’s admin expressed remorse for the attack and offered a free decryption key.
• It appears that, in this instance at least, LockBit has taken a step back and shown a degree of empathy towards the innocent school children.
• Ransomware gangs are capable of showing empathy towards their victims.