Seriously? Not affiliated with any government, but will use our resources in order to strike back due to American cyber aggression. Sorry comrade, not sorry.

By Zack Whittaker – A cache of chat logs belonging to the Conti ransomware group have leaked online thanks to an apparent insider, who claimed to have objected to the group’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The leak was shared with VX-Underground, a malware research group that collects malware samples and data. The leaked data set has about 400 files containing tens of thousands of internal chat logs of the Conti group in their native Russian. The files hold about a year’s worth of messages dating back to January 2021, some six months after the group first formed in mid-2020.

Ransomware experts are already poring over the files to learn more about the internal operations of the group. Security researcher Bill Demirkapi translated the files into English.

Conti is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group, which allows affiliates to rent access to its infrastructure to launch attacks. Experts say Conti is based in Russia and may have ties to Russian intelligence.

Earlier this week, Conti said in a blog post — first reported by Reuters and also seen by TechCrunch — that it had “full support” for the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and vowed to retaliate against critical infrastructure if Russia is hit with cyber or military attacks. In an updated post, the group claimed it is not allied with any government, but reiterated: “We will use our resources in order to strike back if the well being and safety of peaceful citizens will be at stake due to American cyber aggression.” Read On: