The University of Maastricht recovers ransom payment from the 2019 ransomware attack

On Saturday 2nd of July 2022, the University of Maastricht announced they had managed to successfully recover a ransom they had paid from a ransomware attack against the university that occurred on December 23, 2019. The ransom demand was 30 Bitcoins which at the time was worth about 197,000 euros ($218,000).

But in April this year, the Dutch public prosecution service was able to trace and seize some of the ransom by freezing a crypto wallet back in 2020 which contained part of the paid ransom, while an information request submitted to the crypto-exchange broker enabled the authorities to track down a Ukrainian individual who owned the wallet and in 2021, the Dutch police travelled to Ukraine to work closely with local law enforcement to complete the seizure.

Since the ransomware attack, the value of the recovered ransom sum has risen rapidly, although when compared with the total damage cost of the attack, the recovered sum is exceeded by the total damage costs. The university plans to use the retrieved funds for students in need, whether to compensate those hit hardest by the pandemic, or other vulnerable students.