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Jeremy Laird

16 September 2025

But some observers think this is just an attempt to distract law enforcement.

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(Image credit: Getty images – Rapeepong Puttakumwong)

A collective of 15 ransomware gangs including Scattered Spider, IntelBroker and Lapsus$ have announced a mass retirement from their nefarious activities. They claim their “objectives” have been fulfilled, so it’s time to enjoy their “millions” in “silence”.

As spotted by El Reg, the collective posted a message on Breachforums announcing their supposed retirement. “Silence will now be our strength,” the statement said, “we [] have decided to go dark”.
As for what’s next, the statement says the some among the collective (apparently the most “stupid”) will enjoy their “golden parachutes with the millions the group accumulated,” while others, “will keep on studying and improving systems you use in your daily lifes. In silence.”

Related Articles

German phone repair and insurance firm goes bankrupt after paying €200,000 to ransomware hackers despite reported revenue of 70 million

US DoJ puts $11 million bounty on ransomware king allegedly responsible for stealing $18 billion

A single guessed password has led to a cyberattack that put a fully insured 158-year-old company out of business despite security practices being up to code

The group points out that further attacks may be attributed to them, but these were masterminded and carried out before the retirement decision.

The group claims that efforts by law enforcement to track them down will be futile, while implying that the arrests already made of some members of their gangs in France were all part of a master plan.
“We have ensured that the investigations targeting them will progressively fall apart, and that their mild vanity peccati will not inflict on them, long term consequences,” the statement claims.
Of course, as The Register points out, “cybercrime gangs often try to evade law enforcement by abandoning their handles, then changing tactics and operating under new names.” The assumption is that whoever runs these gangs will pop up soon enough.

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Jeremy Laird

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Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.

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German phone repair and insurance firm goes bankrupt after paying €200,000 to ransomware hackers despite reported revenue of 70 million

US DoJ puts $11 million bounty on ransomware king allegedly responsible for stealing $18 billion

A single guessed password has led to a cyberattack that put a fully insured 158-year-old company out of business despite security practices being up to code

‘One of the most powerful DDoS botnets to ever exist’ has been taken down by the DoJ with help from Amazon Web Services, Google, Cloudflare and others

Google begins legal action against BadBox 2.0, ‘the largest known botnet of internet-connected TVs’ affecting more than 10,000,000 Android devices including *checks notes* picture frames

No, 16 billion passwords didn’t just get exposed in a mega-hack, but you should get with the program and stop reusing passwords anyways

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