Ransomware gangs are complaining that other crooks are stealing their ransoms
I thiink I can see why Revil added the backdoor. It's not to steal ransoms. It's to prevent too juicy a target.<p>There have been reports of crews stating "we won't hit hospitals in covid". With this backdoor, if your customers hit a hospital, you can hold your promise.<p>Even worse than hospitals (from their perspective) is agitating the American intelligence services. Hit too many pipelines, or similar high-news high-impact targets and 'national security threat' is your new name.<p>Worse than that still, imagine one of your affiliates is stupid enough to target inside Russia. You need to keep the Russians happy or all of a sudden trial or extradition become likely outcomes.<p>At the same time, once you have the opportunity, why not use back door for some more money.<p>Glad to see that they still aren't fully cooperating like legal businesses yet.