The hacking group behind the recent Jaguar Land Rover ransomware attack and more than 10 of their contemporaries have announced an end to their public hacking efforts in a post on BreachForums, as per TheRegister. Claiming their objectives have been fulfilled, they are riding off into the sunset and taking their "millions the group accumulated" over the years with them.
For the past half decade, ransomware groups have been running rampant in the technology industry. Exploiting social engineering and weaknesses in two-factor authentication systems, prolific groups like Scattered Spider and Lap$u$$ made names for themselves hacking Samsung, Nvidia, and most recently, Jaguar Land Rover. Although some members have been arrested over the years, that hasn't slowed their hacking efforts.
That may happen now, though, that the groups have decided to cease their actions seemingly voluntarily. In the missive, the groups claim to have halted all hacking activities, and that any future actions attributed to them will be from breaches that have yet to be disclosed but were committed in the past.
Moving forward, though some members will allegedly continue to work to improve systems we all "use in our daily lives," others will "enjoy [their] golden parachutes with the millions the group accumulated." Others still, will "just go gentle into that good night."
The groups are said to include, "APSUS$, Trihash, Yurosh, yaxsh, WyTroZz, N3z0x, Nitroz, TOXIQUEROOT, Prosox, Pertinax, Kurosh, Clown, IntelBroker, Scattered Spider, Yukari," as well as "many others."
Intriguingly, the send-off references IntelBroker as one of the hacking "groups" to be signing off. IntelBroker is considered to be the handle of arrested hacker, Kai Logan West, who stands accused of over a range of hacking attacks against corporate and government entities.
It's probable that West is one of the "four who are now in custody in France," the BreachForum posts references. It also seems to suggest that West and other incarcerated members of these groups may well have been used as deliberate scapegoats.
"We have ensured that the investigations targeting them will progressively fall apart, and that their mild vanity peccati will not inflict on them, long term consequences."
West was discovered by authorities due to an apparent error in operational security. A Bitcoin address linked him to an account on a cryptocurrency exchange where he had used his driver's license as proof of identity.
Although there are few avenues to proving the veracity of the claims in the ransomware groups' post today, that may come in time. If West's incarceration doesn't last, and the prolific nature of recent ransomware groups is reduced in the months to come, that may be a sign of the "Truth" it claims to be offering.
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