'Dumbass' criminal breaks the 'first rule of ransomware club'

A Nova (RAlord affiliate) ransomware operator accidentally infected Eriell Group, an oilfield services company in Uzbekistan/Moscow; Nova apologized, banned the affiliate, and claimed no files were encrypted or leaked while offering free recovery help. The article highlights the informal rule among many Russian/CIS-tolerated ransomware groups not to attack CIS organizations and surveys other developer/operator mistakes that have undermined ransomware operations.