The reward offered by Europol for Russian ransomware groups is actually eyewash.

According to a report by Golden Finance, a so-called reward of $50,000 from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to track down the administrators of the Russian ransomware group Qilin is actually just a Telegram eyewash. This false reward news has deceived several cybersecurity news media, making them mistakenly believe that Europol would pay rewards to anyone who could provide information about the two Qilin administrators, Haise and XORacle. It is claimed that these two individuals are responsible for “coordinating affiliated organizations and overseeing ransomware activities,” and Europol hopes to obtain intelligence that can “directly lead to the identification or location of these administrators.” However, Europol confirmed to SecurityWeek that this so-called reward is actually an “eyewash” and that the agency has never issued such a reward.