In 2019, Maastricht University (Maastricht University) in the Netherlands was hit by ransomware, which locked out data on 25.000 employees and students. The university has agreed to pay a €200.000 ransom to unlock the encrypted data, reports German DW.
Apparently, after years, some of the ransom has been recovered, but with a very significant difference.
As part of the investigation into this particular attack, the Dutch Police were monitoring a bank account that laundered money in Ukraine. A small amount of the ransom was deposited into this account – around 40.000 euros in digital currencies.
Prosecutors were able to break into the account in 2020 and discovered several different cryptocurrencies. The authorities then managed to return the ransom to the University after two years. But the value of the bitcoins in the Ukrainian account had increased from the then value of €40.000 to €500.000.
So a university official said that all the money will go into "a fund to help students financially".
