REvil, the notorious ransomware group based in Russia, was taken offline in a hacking operation by several countries spearheaded by the United States, according to a Reuters report. The US government ramped up its efforts to stop REvil in its tracks after the gang was responsible for the attack against Kaseya, a US software management company, the report added. The agencies involved in the operation include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Cyber Command, the Secret Service, and a few countries whose names are not yet known, Reuters reported. REvil’s official website ‘Happy Blog’ is no longer online; it was used to leak victim data and extort companies, the news website added. Unnamed sources told Reuters that a foreign partner of the US government carried out the hacking operation infiltrating REvil's computer architecture. They added that the operation was still active. Ransomware is the biggest cyber threat in 2021 as attacks have grown exponentially because of its lucrative gains. REvil is one of the most dreaded ransomware gangs responsible for attacks on JBS Meat and Colonial Pipeline, among others. The US-led hacking operation might taper the unfettered growth of ransomware attacks. How did the operation unfold? REvil's computer network infrastructure was hacked by law enforcement officials giving them control of some of their servers, as per Reuters. Earlier, the FBI had a universal decryption key following the Kaseya attack which permitted infected parties to recover their files without paying a ransom. However, the key was not used for weeks as the…
