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Yeah apparently in addition to their white label ransomware software, if you licensed their software you could also have DarkSide handle negotiations for you.

Yeah apparently in addition to their white label ransomware software, if you licensed their software you could also have DarkSide handle negotiations for you. 10%-25% of the ransom and in exchange you get people who have real experience handling the negotiations and have the infra in place already to remain anonymous while supporting 24/7 English language service.

rsj_hn 5y ago
Ransomware-As-A-Platform. I wonder if they got the criminal-underground equivalent of VC-funding, or if they have something like Y-combinator to fund innovative criminal approaches and promote networking -- like evil-Kirk from the mirror universe, there could be a Saul Graham with a mustache writing essays about unlocking value and what you are not allowed to say in the ransomware community.
- vmception 5y ago
  There is investment infrastructure. Mostly informal and enforced via smart contract and multisignature transactions. Organized on forums and chat rooms. Not much capital is needed though and the affiliate and licensing model is better, which also just means an address is hardcoded that splits payment, or a server controls the private key (or master private key for infinite unique address creation) to addresses and automatically splits received payments to the RaaS service I get that was supposed to be a joke, its exactly the same or even more streamlined than the licit economy. There is no major distinction except the kinds of “risk factors” one might list.
- meowface 5y ago
  From my (admittedly shallow) understanding, all of that does kind of exist and has for at least a few years, now. It's also existed for longer for the DDoS-as-a-Service industry. Most of it's in Russian and takes place on private and semi-private Russian forums and chat rooms/groups. There's definitely a hierarchy to it. Any particular group may not necessarily develop or own the software or infrastructure they're using. You can probably liken it to drug markets, where there are some top-level central players and many tiers below that make up the whole supply and distribution chain. (And potentially, the absolute top-level / "The Commission" may be certain elements of certain nations' governments, in some cases, or at least closely associated with them, which further complicates matters.) You might find this 2020 interview with a ransomware operator interesting: https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/document_files/files/000/095/481/original/010421_LockBit_Interview.pdf https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/...

rsj_hn 5y ago

Ransomware-As-A-Platform. I wonder if they got the criminal-underground equivalent of VC-funding, or if they have something like Y-combinator to fund innovative criminal approaches and promote networking -- like evil-Kirk from the mirror universe, there could be a Saul Graham with a mustache writing essays about unlocking value and what you are not allowed to say in the ransomware community.

vmception 5y ago
There is investment infrastructure. Mostly informal and enforced via smart contract and multisignature transactions. Organized on forums and chat rooms. Not much capital is needed though and the affiliate and licensing model is better, which also just means an address is hardcoded that splits payment, or a server controls the private key (or master private key for infinite unique address creation) to addresses and automatically splits received payments to the RaaS service I get that was supposed to be a joke, its exactly the same or even more streamlined than the licit economy. There is no major distinction except the kinds of “risk factors” one might list.
meowface 5y ago
From my (admittedly shallow) understanding, all of that does kind of exist and has for at least a few years, now. It's also existed for longer for the DDoS-as-a-Service industry. Most of it's in Russian and takes place on private and semi-private Russian forums and chat rooms/groups. There's definitely a hierarchy to it. Any particular group may not necessarily develop or own the software or infrastructure they're using. You can probably liken it to drug markets, where there are some top-level central players and many tiers below that make up the whole supply and distribution chain. (And potentially, the absolute top-level / "The Commission" may be certain elements of certain nations' governments, in some cases, or at least closely associated with them, which further complicates matters.) You might find this 2020 interview with a ransomware operator interesting: https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/document_files/files/000/095/481/original/010421_LockBit_Interview.pdf https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/...