German and American investigators have broken up the Hive hacker group.

In addition to the FBI and the American Ministry of Justice, the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office and the Reutlingen police headquarters were in charge.

This was announced by the two German authorities on Thursday.

In a press conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray thanked Reutlingen Police Headquarters for their good work.

Gustave parts

Business correspondent in Stuttgart.

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The investigators broke up the group on Thursday night, said US Attorney General Merrick Garland at the press conference.

The investigators had been in the hack groups' networks for a long time and recently gave victims the passwords to unlock the data encrypted by the hackers.

In so-called ransomware cases, hackers penetrate the systems of companies and institutions and encrypt the data.

Only in return for a ransom payment, which is often in the millions, do the victims then receive a password to decrypt the data again.

Many affected organizations also pay out of fear of embarrassment instead of going public.

The FBI director appealed to those affected to seek contact with the authorities.

According to the Stuttgart and Reutlingen authorities, the investigations originated in Germany.

The cyber specialists of the Esslingen Criminal Investigation Department penetrated the perpetrators' IT infrastructure and gave the "international partners the crucial information".

The starting point was a cyber attack on a company based in the Esslingen district.

A spokesman for the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office did not want to say which company it was.

The most prominent cyber case in the region was the attack on the automotive supplier Eberspächer.

The spokesman did not deny that it was the family business.

The investigations were only possible "since the companies did not give in to the blackmail, but filed criminal charges with the investigating authorities".

Extorted more than $100 million

According to the investigators, the group has carried out more than 1,500 serious cyber attacks worldwide and extorted well over $ 100 million.

The damage caused was in the billions.

"Since July of last year, we have assisted more than 300 victims around the world, preventing approximately $130 million in ransom payments," said US Attorney General Garland.

In addition to companies, the Hive hackers often attacked public institutions.

Garland included school districts and hospitals.

One was attacked in the middle of the corona pandemic and was only able to accept patients again after the ransom had been paid.

In Germany, the hackers attacked the electronics retailer Mediamarkt/Saturn.

According to the German authorities, Hive had attacked more than 70 companies in Germany alone, three of them in Baden-Württemberg.