Ransomware recovery CEO charged over secret ransom payments

{"heading_1":"The Alleged Scheme","paragraph_1":"Similar concerns were raised in a 2019 ProPublica investigation, which reported that MonsterCloud sometimes paid ransomware operators while claiming to offer a solution other than paying the attackers.","paragraph_2":"Security researcher Fabian Wosar and another researcher created their own ransomware and approached several recovery companies, including MonsterCloud, while posing as victims.","paragraph_3":"The researchers provided the recovery firms with ransom notes containing email addresses they controlled for the fake ransomware gang, leading to anonymous messages offering to pay the ransom.","heading_2":"The Victims' Perspective","heading_3":"Industry Concerns and Previous Investigations","paragraph_4":"MonsterCloud's CEO, Zohar Pinhasi, disputed that the company had promised in advance it could decrypt the files and denied misleading customers.","paragraph_5":"Pinhasi also told ProPublica that MonsterCloud's recovery methods varied by case and declined to disclose them, describing the techniques as a 'trade secret'."}