DarkSide hackers mint money with ransomware franchise

As its coming-out announcement suggests, DarkSide is less a single hacking group than a sort of criminal franchise. — Dreamstime/TNS

When a new ransomware group popped up on the scene last year, the hackers did what’s in vogue for digital extortion organisations these days: They issued a press release.

The hackers had already made “millions of dollars” in profit working as affiliates for other groups when they decided to go out on their own, the announcement said. “We created DarkSide because we didn’t find the perfect product. Now we have it.”