Allegedly, AlphV Scammed Change Healthcare and Its Own Affiliate (1)
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cuppa and lend an ear, because we’ve got a tale to spin about murky dealings in the shadowy world of cybersecurity. Now, you may be familiar with the disreputable gang known as AlphV – notorious for their cyber shenanigans. Well, it seems that one of their crew is squawking about a recent ruckus with Change Healthcare.
Our protagonist – or antagonist, depending on your perspective – claims to have been the brains behind a controversial attack on Change Healthcare. Now swear down, this is where it truly gets murky. The rascal alleges that after amassing a tidy $22 million from Change Healthcare as a payoff to call off the digital dogs, the AlphV bigwigs pocketed the dosh and handed him his marching orders. Now, it’s his word against theirs, but it’s an account that’s got more than a few eyebrows raised in the cyber circuits.
Now, you’d think such underhanded maneuvers would have laid low the whole AlphV structure, right? But no, there’s a plot twist. One of the movers and shakers at AlphV – now a former member – is washing his hands off the whole kerfuffle. He insists he’s not been involved in this dodgy dealing with Change Healthcare, even adds that he’s jumped ship after being locked out himself. To thicken the plot, he goes on to confirm that the boys from AlphV did, in fact, pinch the associate’s loot and handed over a decryptor after receiving payment from Change Healthcare.
It seems there’s a storm brewing at AlphV, with talk of a pending re-branding. The ex-admin also mentioned that a good few listings on AlphV were about as genuine as a three-pound note. He labelled Dragos, Tripalti, and ‘some insurance companies’, as phonies, warning us to brace ourselves for more double-crossing extortion from the cyber rogues.
If you really stretch your memory, you might remember the AlphV operation being pulled down last December. Well, they’ve been charming their way to new recruits, promising a thick slice of ‘Affiliate Plus’ action. All this risky business got the ex-admin contemplating, “Perhaps LB was the safer option after all.”
We’ve tried to get a few words out of Change Healthcare about all these shenanigans. But you know how these corporates can be – all very hush-hush, with a simple, guarded reply, “Right now I can share that we are focused on the investigation.”
This whole saga of devious cyber ploys is as delicious as a good pot of tea – it’s boiling, smoky and utterly British. Don’t forget to keep your fingers on the pulse as this convoluted tale of data breaches, heists, cyber backstabbing, and ransom unfolds. After all, the audacious world of cybersecurity never fails to deliver a good yarn.
by Parker Bytes