A mystical group of hackers has surprised the world by strangely donating to charity. The group known as Robin Hood Hackers claimed they aimed at improving the global living conditions.
Why the ‘good’ act?
The mysterious cybercriminals asserted to robbing countless millions of dollars from businesses around the world. From the time the group began its dark side activities, security experts have been perplexed by their relatively advanced operations.
On October 13th, the Robin Hood Hackers posted an article which quoted: “we believe it’s reasonable if part of the cash received from businesses goes to charity.” “No matter how unfavorable you presume our work to be, we enjoy recognizing our assistance changed someone’s life.”
The hackers asserted that they intend to better the globe through the millions they have obtained by hacking countless businesses.
How do Robin Hood Hackers work?
Cryptocurrencies are commonly loved by cybercriminals to siphon money because of their semi-hidden nature. The victim’s data is hacked through encryption. The encryption is then attached to ransomware and is only released after the victim has paid a ransom to the cybercriminals. File encryption has recently become a new trend by cyber hackers.
Who were the recipients?
The recipients of the donations were the Water Project and Children International. The function of the former is to enhance the accessibility of water fit for human consumption. They work within sub-Saharan Africa.
The latter has projects in India, the USA, South America, and the Caribbean region. They engage in sustainable projects that support households and their neighborhoods.
The representative for Children International stated the contribution is attached to cybercrime and the NGO has no intention of holding it. Subsequently, the Water Project is yet to give any word about the donation obtained. The current report by yahoo news records the mystical group uploaded on the internet invoices amounting to $10,000 in bitcoin contributions to the two organizations.
What are the challenges?
Cybersafety experts are finding the abrupt change in cybercrime unusual. They say this is also an uncomfortable advancement in terms of law and ethics, considering that the cybercriminals can utilize illegal money to make donations.
A report by BBC news stated that the Robin Hood Hackers just target big businesses taking their IT systems hostage to compel them to pay ransom money. This was confirmed by the hackers after they posted an article claiming their target is just the lucrative businesses. A statement from Brett Callow, an internet security analyst, stated that the reason behind criminals doing charitable acts is not clear. He stated that the main reason could be the eagerness to cover their guilt.
Another possible reason could be fulfilling egotistical factors. They could be intending to be viewed as Robin Hood personalities as opposed to merciless extortionists. It doesn’t matter their inspirations. It’s an extremely uncommon action. According to my understanding, this is not the very first time a computer system hacking team has given part of their revenues to a charitable group.
In 2016, some computer system hackers confiding by the name Phineas Fisher contributed bitcoin worth $11k, which was hacked from a financial institution. The money was transferred to Kurdish, a Syrian anti-capitalist group which was at that time battling ISIS.
Where are the government agencies?
The dark side cyber goons are reasonably new. However, an evaluation of the cryptocurrency market validates the group is causing untold harm to victims by obtaining ransom from them. Additionally, there is proof that the hackers might be closely working with other criminals involved in top-level hacking targeting prominent businesses like Travelex, whose operations were paralyzed by computer system hackers in January.
The method in which the cyber goons donated to the charities is likewise something to cause worry to the police.
The hackers made use of a US-based platform known as The Giving BLOCK. The block currently hosts sixty-seven NGOs worldwide and among them is Save The Children, which is the 1st and Rainforest foundation.
Are you safe online?
Within the week, Robin Hood Hackers, through push notices, warned its customers to set their accounts to allow two-factor verification. Additionally, it intends to release to Its customers more detailed recommendations for account safety and protection.
Several victims claimed not noticing any suspicious activities jeopardizing their accounts. Others claimed their accounts were hacked, although they had activated the two-factor verification.
Where are the victims
Lena Williams is an HR specialist based in Chicago. She is unable to identify exactly how cyber goons entered into her account a month ago. She didn’t notice any breach of her emails. She had also set up the two-factor verification, yet one day, she awakened to notifications her investments were up for sale. She immediately found that her account had been locked.
Robinhood claimed it’s promptly working with its clients to safeguard their investments. Williams claimed no emails or Twitter messages were replied till Thursday, yet her account was hacked on September 10th.