Friday, January 10, 2025

Hacker Group breaches National Data Center, offers free decryption key

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Julian Isaac

Journalist

Editor

Interview

In a surprising revelation, hacker group Brain Cipher Ransomware has claimed that the second provisional National Data Center’s system was extremely easy to breach that they infiltrated the data center’s infrastructure in a remarkably short time.

“We only needed a little time to dismantle the data and encrypt several thousand terabytes of information,” the hacker group said as quoted from their X account @stealthmore_int on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.

Brain Cipher Ransomware elaborated that they targeted the second provisional National Data Center due to its high-tech infrastructure and significant investment requirements.

“Everyone running this business should be aware of this in a hopeless situation,” they stated.

Despite the breach, the hacker group decided to provide the decryption key for the data center to a second party within the Indonesian government for free. They emphasized that this would be the first and last time they offer a key to a victim at no charge.

The group did not specify who the second party was, but the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) logo was prominently featured.

“This is the first and last time a victim will receive the key for free. For others, ‘welcome to the chat’,” they warned.

The decision to hand over the decryption key to Kominfo without external pressure was made independently by the group.

“We made this decision autonomously,” stated Brain Cipher Ransomware. “There is no misunderstanding within our team. We are a great team, and everyone supports this decision.”

They concluded that providing the key for free was necessary because negotiations stalled when the second party referred the negotiations to a third party.

Deputy Minister of Communication and Informatics Nezar Patria declined to comment on Brain Cipher Ransomware’s actions.

Julian Isaac

Journalist

 

Editor

 

Interview

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