{ "id": "d62d2eec-9083-49fb-8bec-6c790b01a00f", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:10:12.379436Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:57.651058Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "79117c21cd18623fa61864577cc44009bb5535fc", "title": "Russian hacker Q\u0026A: An Interview With REvil-Affiliated Ransomware Contractor", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 67910, "plain_text": "Russian hacker Q\u0026A: An Interview With REvil-Affiliated\r\nRansomware Contractor\r\nBy Flashpoint Intel Team\r\nPublished: 2021-09-29 · Archived: 2026-04-02 12:47:37 UTC\r\nA Different Mindset and Approach\r\nA threat actor—who claims to work with REvil and other sophisticated ransomware collectives—recently spoke\r\nwith Russian-language website Lenta[.]ru on the condition of anonymity. \r\nThis interview is a marked departure from a typical Q\u0026A with a threat actor. Discussions between media and\r\nRussian-speaking ransomware operatives are generally filled with braggadocio emanating from the threat actor. To\r\nthem, what they do is luxurious, anarcho-capitalist, cool, and lucrative; they may think of themselves as\r\ninvincible.\r\nHere, however, the anonymous threat actor does not exhibit the same sentiments as their colleagues. Instead, the\r\nanonymous interviewee talks of sleepless nights, living in fear, and the general mindset and business of a modern-day ransomware contractor.\r\nThe following interview, originally published on September 20, has been lightly edited for clarity. \r\nLenta.ru: Our conversation today will center on reports of the resurrection of the REvil group, which is\r\ncategorically linked with Russia in Western media. The ransomware collective is credited with attacks on\r\nlarge American companies, and, with this, cooperation with Russian special services. Have you collaborated\r\nwith REvil? Are these accusations justified?\r\n“Antivirus”: In the normal world, I was called a contractor—doing some tasks for many ransomware collectives\r\nthat journalists consider to be famous. The very fact that I am giving an interview is unlikely to please my clients,\r\nwhich is why I hide behind an alias that means nothing. Among my customers once was the REvil group.\r\nWhen doing this kind of work, you do not always know who is actually setting the task. But the practice of the US\r\nauthorities to appoint culprits amuses many [inside my circle]. There are Chinese groups that for years have been\r\nlabeled in all media as connected with the authorities of the country, who allegedly work out of the Chinese\r\nversion of Lubyanka [headquarters of the FSB]. But inside the community, everyone guesses that these are simple\r\nguys scattered all over the world who even have difficulty communicating among themselves, let alone the\r\ngovernment.\r\nOf course, nothing can be ruled out. But personally, I have no feeling that the Russian special services are\r\nplanning any attacks.\r\nAnother source of mine believes that REvil has disappeared from the radar due to increased interest from\r\nthe US authorities.\r\nhttps://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\nMany in one way or another came across the user Unknown, who was the official spokesperson of the group on\r\nthe dark web. He disappeared this summer and it is not known what happened to him. There is a version that the\r\nAmericans managed to find out his identity, after which this information was passed to the Russian security\r\nforces. It is possible.\r\nBut sometimes a banana is just a banana. A person could have fallen ill with coronavirus, gotten into a traffic\r\naccident, or simply left the business.\r\nIs [Unknown] leaving the business?\r\nThis is not the mafia. Plus you’re anonymous. When you want to leave the business, you simply press the\r\nshutdown button on your laptop.\r\nLet’s figure it out: how profitable is cybercrime and what must happen in a person’s life for them to decide\r\nto leave it?\r\nLet’s put it this way: this is a very time-consuming job. And if you’ve earned enough, then you can quit the game.\r\nChronic fatigue, burnout, deadlines—all these words from the life of ordinary office workers are also relevant for\r\nmalware developers.\r\nThere are two factors at play. On the one hand, you are afraid all the time. You wake up in fear, you go to bed in\r\nfear, you hide behind a mask and a hood in a store, you even hide from your wife or girlfriend. I’m younger than\r\nyou, but I’ve already earned for the rest of my life. Not millions, but enough to live in peace and never work. Here\r\nis also a second factor: how to quit a job that brings such earnings in a country where you are not much sought\r\nafter?\r\nLockBit representatives said in an interview that they cannot sleep properly. Is it true?\r\nYes, you don’t sleep well. I’ve been sleeping four to five hours consistently for years. The problem here is more\r\nthat you have a family during the day and all work is at night, plus you have to take different time zones into\r\nconsideration.\r\nBefore COVID, did you have any desire to move to Europe or somewhere else?\r\nIf there comes a moment when I need to pack my backpack and leave the country on the first flight, I will. But\r\nnow I’m comfortable.\r\nIs patriotism a common story among cybercriminals?\r\nThis is not a community to survey. It is clear that there are some platforms for hiring freelancers and exchanging\r\nopinions, where news is also posted. But every person in my profession lives without any connection with the\r\ncommunity. I don’t know what’s in my employer’s mind, just as he doesn’t know what’s in mine.\r\nBut if you try to answer globally, then I see that in the interviews of many associates, even from the one with the\r\nLockBit group, there is rather a discussion of social equality. If you go to the Italian forums on the darknet, they\r\nwrite more about socialism than about hacks.\r\nhttps://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nThis idea is close to me. The world is unfair to the weak, everything is built on financial gain. There are people\r\nwho lead the largest corporations by birthright. At best, they throw off hundredths of a percent of their super\r\nprofits to charity, for which they are deified by the hands of their personal PR specialists. At worst, they hide their\r\nbillions from the tax authorities. This should not be so, but this is happening not only in the USA and Europe, but\r\nalso in Russia.\r\nDo you feel like Robin Hood?\r\nHonestly? No. I am against romanticizing my work. Money is being stolen or extorted with my hands. But I’m not\r\nashamed of what I do. I sincerely try to find at least something bad in this and cannot. Probably, my concepts of\r\nwhat is good and what is bad are somehow shifted. But in this case, they are shifted for many in this profession.\r\nMany groups declare on their blogs that they do not attack social objects. Have your developments ever\r\nbeen used for such purposes?\r\nAs far as I know, no.\r\nYou, like many of your colleagues, have a bright socialist rhetoric. Can we assume that, even if not always,\r\nbut at least occasionally, American companies attack precisely because they are capitalists?\r\nFirst, they are a\r\nttacked because they are rich and have a lot of money. It’s hard for me to imagine an ideologically motivated\r\nattack. Second, cybercrime is an international phenomenon and the communities themselves are international.\r\nThis year I worked with code snippets commissioned by the community, with whom I corresponded in Russian.\r\nThe code itself contained comments in French.\r\nIf we go a little deeper into the specifics of attacks, what areas are now considered the most promising and\r\nwhat protective tools cause the greatest inconvenience to malware developers?\r\nIt seems to me that I will not tell you anything new here. Most of the attacks can be compared to automated spam\r\nmailing. Whoever gets hooked will be “milked.” That is why each group has such a geography of defeat: from\r\nstrong European companies to Vietnamese or Cambodian medium and even small businesses.\r\nSometimes a specific company is attacked. Here, tactics change depending on the goal. I read somewhere a story\r\nabout the guys who could not get inside the security perimeter (the conditional border between the outside world\r\nand the internal systems of the company) of a large corporation for several years and came up with an elegant\r\nsolution. They began tossing flash drives with the company’s logos to its office so that one of the employees\r\nthought that his colleague had lost important documents, and inserted the flash drive into the computer in an\r\nattempt to find out whose it was. After that, malicious code should have been launched, which would instantly\r\nspread over the internal network. I don’t remember how the story ended.\r\nIn such situations, in the modern world, it is not the company itself that is attacked, but small organizations from\r\nits supply chain. For example, it is not a bank that is attacked but a manufacturer of minor software that covers a\r\nminor problem. It is now the most popular point-to-point attack method that bypasses traditional defenses and\r\npenetrates the security perimeter.\r\nhttps://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nThe strategy of our conditional adversaries—information security departments—network segmentation according\r\nto the principle of zero trust. All the security forces now talk about this, but the tactics have not yet been brought\r\nto the ideal.\r\nDoes the service model of malware development as a service already dominate the dark web?\r\nNot yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Convenient approach.\r\nBlackMatter hit the Japanese giant Olympus a few days ago. Before that, they said that they considered\r\nthemselves the leaders of the hacking community. Will the revival of REvil interfere with their plans?\r\nTo be honest, I don’t make those [leadership] ratings for myself. And no one is. How do you imagine it?\r\nTogether with REvil, the DarkSide ransomware collective, responsible for the attack on the Colonial\r\nPipeline, disappeared from the Dark Web. There is a theory that BlackMatter and DarkSide are one and\r\nthe same community. This is true?\r\nI think yes. Although I am not sure that for someone other than journalists and security officials, this is of\r\nprinciple.\r\nMany noticed that in the very first interview, BlackMatter promised not to attack American infrastructure\r\nfacilities. It looked like a white flag—they say, guys, we won’t be like this anymore.\r\nPerhaps so, but it doesn’t matter. BlackMatter is just making money and they don’t want to draw attention to\r\nthemselves. You can hit the jackpot once, but provoke such a geopolitical conflict that you will be quickly found.\r\nIt is better to quietly receive stable small sums from mid-sized companies, only occasionally entering corporations\r\nsuch as Olympus.\r\nReduce ransomware risk and see Flashpoint intelligence in action \r\nWhen organizations, such as financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, gain insight into the operational\r\ndynamics of malicious cybercriminal communities, they can better understand threat actor TTPs; access\r\npotentially vital observations in real-time; leverage that information to thwart a ransomware attack. \r\nSign up for your risk-free 90-day trial and see how Flashpoint can provide you with the actionable threat\r\nintelligence you and your entire team need to identify and respond to threats targeting your organization. When\r\nequipped with Flashpoint Intelligence, your team has immediate access to collections across illicit online\r\ncommunities ranging from private forums and illicit marketplaces to encrypted chat services channels to gain\r\ninsight into threat-actor activity on a global scale.\r\nSource: https://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/\r\nhttps://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/\r\nPage 4 of 4", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor/" ], "report_names": [ "interview-with-revil-affiliated-ransomware-contractor" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "75108fc1-7f6a-450e-b024-10284f3f62bb", "created_at": "2024-11-01T02:00:52.756877Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:05.273746Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Play", "aliases": null, "source_name": "MITRE:Play", "tools": [ "Nltest", "AdFind", "PsExec", "Wevtutil", "Cobalt Strike", "Playcrypt", "Mimikatz" ], "source_id": "MITRE", "reports": null } ], "ts_created_at": 1775434212, "ts_updated_at": 1775826777, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/79117c21cd18623fa61864577cc44009bb5535fc.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/79117c21cd18623fa61864577cc44009bb5535fc.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/79117c21cd18623fa61864577cc44009bb5535fc.jpg" } }