Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The ransomware business is booming this year and could be bringing in billions for some of its top players, according to a report released by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN (via The Record). The report analyzed the massive growth in ransomware payments in the first half of 2021 by looking at suspicious activity reports from financial institutions and was even able to estimate how much some hacking groups were making by analyzing blockchain transactions linked to their wallets.
The report found that reports of suspicious ransomware-related transactions totaled around $590 million from January 2021 to June 2021. One of the most shocking numbers in the report is that the top 10 hacking groups have…
