They attacked hospital units, laboratory analysis companies, municipalities, transport/airline companies, hotel units, and technology companies: caught PJ

It is one of the most relevant [grupos de hackers] all over the world”

One of the world’s main hacker groups, the HIVE Group, was dismantled on Thursday in an operation involving the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime and Technological Crime (UNC3T) of the Judicial Police (PJ).

This criminal group, described by PJ as one of the “most connected worldwide”, is suspected of having attacked several Portuguese institutions and entities, including “hospital units, laboratory analysis companies, municipalities, transportation/airline companies, hotels, technology companies, among others.” other”.

The group ran ransomware that performed the “double extortion” function. When he gained access to a victim’s network or account, before encrypting his data and demanding a ransom, the hackers would copy all the data from the network. After encrypting the victim’s data, the criminals demanded a ransom be paid so that the information would not be published on the group’s platform. darkness web.

“The investigations, which lasted several months, were conducted by various international partners, and one of the week-long executive working sessions was hosted by the Judicial Police/UNC3T, which was attended by more than 30 police officers from 13 countries involved in the operation,” PJ revealed in a statement.

By cooperating with various international institutions, the authorities were able to identify the technological infrastructure used by the members of this criminal group, as well as the private keys they use to encrypt the victims’ data.

He adds, “The criminal group has been denied the means to launch cyberattacks, often capable of completely paralyzing the affected victim’s operations and inflicting economic and image damage on the targeted institutions.”

Dismantling the network also resulted in police being able to decrypt the data of more than 1,500 HIVE victims worldwide, without having to pay the criminals the ransom. PJ estimates that with this measure, around 120 million euros in refunds were not paid.