Many gangs still operate in Russia and Ukraine, though ransomware hubs have emerged in Iran, Brazil, India, North Korea, China and Peru. Some hackers seem to work independently, like pirates. Others appear to have links to their country’s government, or at least a licence to harass Western companies as long as they don’t cause so much harm that... See more

Since serving his jail sentence and leaving behind his criminal past, Brett has become a leading consultant on tech security, now helping people learn how to protect themselves against the type of person he once was. 

For the most part, the gangs operate like corporations, with human-resources departments and complex bureaucracies. Prominent groups issue press releases (“We are pleased to announce that we have successfully encrypted Henry Schein’s network and extracted 35 Terabytes of sensitive data”) and have user-friendly homepages on the dark web, where... See more