Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth day, a coalition led by the US and Europe has mounted a coordinated response focused on financial sanctions and, increasingly, military aid. While the conflict grows in scale and intensity, organizations far beyond the apparatus of military and government are being drawn in — including ransomware groups active in Russia and Ukraine.
That gravitational pull is particularly fraught in Russia, where the borders between hackers and the Russian intelligence services are sometimes porous, and one group in particular has been made to pay for its allegiance to the Putin regime.
On Friday, the notorious ransomware gang Conti surprised many observers by explicitly casting its lot with Putin’s…
