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HighRansomwareOct 8, 2026

Ransomware Recovery Firm Accused of Secretly Paying Cybercriminals

The US Department of Justice has charged the owner of a ransomware recovery company with defrauding victims of more than $19 million. The firm allegedly claimed to recover compromised data using proprietary tools while secretly paying attackers for decryption keys. This situation underscores the critical need for businesses to rely on proven incident response and backup strategies rather than unverified recovery vendors.

Ransomware security briefing

Who is affected

Organizations experiencing ransomware attacks that hire unverified third-party incident response or recovery providers are at risk.

How to mitigate it

  1. 1Maintain isolated, immutable backups and test restoration processes regularly so data recovery does not depend on attackers or third-party decryptors.
  2. 2Thoroughly vet incident response partners and verify their technical credentials before an incident occurs.
  3. 3Require transparency and written contractual proof regarding recovery methodologies and ransomware negotiation policies from any response vendor.
  4. 4Deploy multi-layered endpoint detection and identity protections to stop ransomware before it encrypts core systems.

How Outsource IT solves this

Maintaining verified, restorable backups and a clear continuity plan ensures your business can recover independently from ransomware without negotiating with criminals or risking fraudulent recovery services.

Business Data Backup, Disaster Recovery & Continuity

Tags

ransomwaredata recoveryfraudincident response

Source advisory: the-hacker-news

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