MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Kremlin is not aware whether the disappearance of the REvil hacking group from the darknet is related to Russian-US contacts on cybersecurity, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday.
"I cannot answer your question because I do not possess such information. I don’t know what the group is, where it has disappeared to," the spokesman said in response to a question on whether there is any relation to the fact that the darknet sites allegedly belonging to the REvil hacking group stopped responding to search queries.
The Kremlin representative stressed that Russia considers any manifestations of cybercrimes unacceptable. "We think that they should be punished. In the international aspect, we think that we all should cooperate. In this case, Russia and the US should interact in order to intercept such manifestations. And with regards to details about this group, unfortunately, I do not have this information," he added.
At the same time, the spokesman reiterated that Russia and the US began the process of bilateral consultations on counteracting cybercrime. "Yes, the process of bilateral consultations on this subject has begun," he confirmed. He emphasized, however, that he did not have any information on whether any specific measures had been undertaken against this group of hacking extortionists.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the dark websites allegedly belonging to the REvil hacking group were down. According to the analysts in the sphere of information security surveyed by the agency, the webpage where the group members usually posted statements cannot be found. Bloomberg said that the situation is the same with other resources connected to the REvil hackers who allegedly were behind cyberattacks on meat supplier JBS and software company Kaseya.