Ukrainian Security Researcher Leaked a Treasure Trove of Information on Conti Cybercrime Gang

Major cyberattacks in Ukraine haven't materialized yet, Microsoft says HermeticWiper attacks still ongoing in Ukraine, Phishing campaign targets European officials, Israel-U.S. sign cyber pact, more

Don’t miss my latest CSO column, which looks at a purported leak of 120,000 Russian soldiers’ data, the think tank that released the data, and what harm this leak could cause if proven to be accurate.

Using a Twitter account called Contileaks, a Ukrainian security researcher who decided to stay in Ukraine for the war released an archive of chat messages taken from cybercrime group Conti’s private communications infrastructure, dating from January 29, 2021, to the present day.

The leaks provide a wealth of information on the challenges of running a criminal enterprise with more than 100 salaried employees and insight into how Conti has dealt with its own internal breaches and attacks from private security firms and foreign governments.

Among the insights are that Conti appears to have contracted out much of its spamming operations, or at least there was no mention of “Spammers” as direct employees. Conti’s leaders seem to have set strict budgets for each organizational unit. However, occa…