Black Basta Leader in League With Russian Officials, Chat Logs Show

Black Basta, a prolific Russian-speaking ransomware-as-a-service group first observed in April 2022, had more than 200,000 chat messages leaked that reveal operational weaknesses and alleged ties between its leader and Russian officials; the logs describe an alleged facilitated extraction from custody, the group's use of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) to produce phishing content and modify ransomware code, and indicate past victimization of hundreds of organizations worldwide.