Pierluigi Paganini August 27, 2021

Ragnarok ransomware operators are ceasing their operations and released the master key that can allow their victims to decrypt files for free.

The Ragnarok ransomware group has been active since at least January 2020 and hit dozens of organizations worldwide.

The news was reported by Bleeping Computer that also noticed that ransomware operators have replaced all the victims on their leak site, leaving only the instruction on how to decrypt files along with a link to an archive containing the master key and the binaries for using it.

The Ragnarok gang is shutting down their operations and released the master key that can allow victims to decrypt their files for free.

Like other ransomware gangs, Ragnarok was implementing a double extortion model threatening to publish data stolen from the victims to force them into paying the ransom.

Experts from security firm Emsisoft confirmed that the decryptor released by the Ragnarok ransomware operators contains the master decryption key, they also announced that are working on decryptor that will be released very shortly.

Other ransomware gangs released the decryption key this year, some of them shut down operations other rebranded their operations. Below is the list of crews that released the decryption key:

• Ziggy ransomware
• Conti ransomware
• Avaddon ransomware
• SynAck ransomware

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Ragnarok)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]