Darkside Ransomware Donates $20K Of Extortion Money to Charities

The operators of Darkside ransomware have donated some of the money they made extorting victims to non-profits Children International and The Water Project.

They explain this Robin Hood move as an effort to make the world a better place and plan to make more donations in the future, but anonymously.

Modern-day Robin Hood

Darkside emerged on the ransomware scene in August this year, targeting corporate networks and asking between $200,000 and $2 million for the file decryption key.

Their donations to the two charitable organizations were announced in a “press release” on the gang’s leak site, where they also publish data stolen from victims that did not pay the ransom.

“As we said in the first press release – we are targeting only large profitable corporations. We think it’s fair that some of the money they’ve paid will go to charity. No matter how bad you think our work is, we are pleased to know that we helped change someone’s life.”

– Darkside ransomware operators

On October 13, Darkside showed proof that their gesture was real by posting two receipts for .88BTC ($10,000) for donations to the two organizations.

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Children International is on a mission is to help children living in poverty change their lives for the better by giving them access to health care, educational support, life skills, and job training before they graduate.

The Water Project is fighting the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa by getting communities in the region access to clean, safe, and reliable water.

BleepingComputer has contacted both organizations for a comment about the donations and will update the article when we receive a reply.

Darkside ransomware operators donated the money using The Giving Block, an organization that offers nonprofits the possibility to accept cryptocurrency donations. They also used a cryptocurrency mixing service that hides the trail to the original source.

While the two organizations would put the money to good use, this is unlikely to happen because it resulted from criminal activities. Children International told the BBC that they would not keep this money.

The ransomware operators plan to make more donations in the future but these will be anonymous.

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