Ransomware recovery CEO charged with secretly paying hackers

· Cybersecurity · United States · Israel

The U.S. Department of Justice charged Zohar Pinhasi, the 50-year-old owner of ransomware recovery firm MonsterCloud, with wire fraud. Prosecutors allege he secretly paid attackers to obtain decryption keys while telling victims he was using proprietary technology to recover their encrypted data, billing clients more than $19 million and marking up the ransom payments by about $11 million. Pinhasi, a U.S. and Israeli national who also used the names Zack Silver and Zack Grey, is accused of defrauding victims of ransomware attacks. The case puts a spotlight on the so-called ransom negotiator and recovery industry, whose practices have rarely faced criminal scrutiny.

Why it matters：Criminal charges against a recovery vendor test whether the ransomware response industry can police itself, which matters to insurers, incident-response firms and every victim deciding whether to pay.

Key points

  • Pinhasi allegedly billed over $19 million and marked up ransom payments by roughly $11 million.
  • He claimed proprietary decryption tools to obtain the keys.
  • The charges are wire fraud brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sources (original reporting)

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