Leaked chat logs expose inner workings of secretive ransomware group

Researchers who have read the Russian-language texts said they exposed internal rifts in the secretive organization that have escalated since one of its leaders was arrested because it increases the threat of other members being tracked down as well. The heightened tensions have contributed to growing rifts between the current leader, believed to be Oleg Nefedov, and his subordinates. One of the disagreements involved his decision to target a bank in Russia, which put Black Basta in the crosshairs of law enforcement in that country.

“It turns out that the personal financial interests of Oleg, the group’s boss, dictate the operations, disregarding the team’s interests,” a researcher at Prodraft wrote. “Under his administration, there was also a brute force attack on the infrastructure of some Russian banks. It seems that no measures have been taken by law enforcement, which could present a serious problem and provoke reactions from these authorities.”

The leaked trove also includes details about other members, including two administrators using the names Lapa and YY, and Cortes, a threat actor linked to the Qakbot ransomware group. Also exposed are more than 350 unique links taken from ZoomInfo, a cloud service that provides data about companies and business individuals. The leaked links provide insights into how Black Basta members used the service to research the companies they targeted.

Security firm Hudson Rock said it has already fed the chat transcripts into ChatGPT to create BlackBastaGPT, a resource to help researchers analyze Black Basta operations.