Avaddon ransomware group, one of the most prolific ransomware groups in 2021, has announced that they are shutting the operation down and giving thousands of victims a decryption tool for free.
BleepingComputer's Lawrence Abrams said he was sent an anonymous email with a password and link to a ZIP file named, "Decryption Keys Ransomware Avaddon."
The file had decryption keys for 2,934 victims of the Avaddon ransomware. The startling figure is another example of how many organizations never disclose attacks, as some reports have previously attributed just 88 attacks to Avaddon.
Abrams worked with Emsisoft chief technology officer Fabian Wosar and Coveware's Michael Gillespie to check the files and verify the decryption keys. Emsisoft created a free tool that Avaddon victims can use to decrypt files.
Ransomware gangs -- like those behind Crysis, AES-NI, Shade, FilesLocker, Ziggy -- have at times released decryption keys and shut down for a variety of reasons. A free Avaddon decryption tool was released by a student in Spain in February but the gang quickly updated their code to make it foolproof again.
"This isn't new and isn't without precedence. Several ransomware threat actors have released the key database or ma ..
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