// Context
About This Negotiation
This transcript documents a Akira ransomware negotiation with a redacted victim organisation.
The negotiation consisted of 56 messages exchanged over Unknown.
The initial ransom demand was $250,000. The final outcome is not confirmed in the transcript.
// Primary Source
Full Transcript — Verbatim
Reproduced from Casualtek's Ransomchats archive. URLs have been redacted.
Victim names are shown only where the breach was publicly reported in mainstream media. Any organisation wishing their name redacted can contact us at
enquiries@binary-response.com — we will act promptly.
[Victim] — — Message 1/56
> hello
[Victim] — — Message 2/56
> anyone there
[Akira] — — Message 3/56
> Hello. You've reached Akira support chat. Currently, we are preparing the list of data we took from your network. For now you have to know that dealing with us is the best possible way to settle this quick and cheap. Keep in touch and be patient with us. Do you have a permission to conduct a negotiation on behalf of your organization? Once we get your reply you will be provided with all the details.
[Victim] — — Message 4/56
> Hello
[Akira] — — Message 5/56
> Please confirm you have a permission to conduct a negotiation on behalf of your organization and we will provide the details.
[Victim] — — Message 6/56
> hello
[Victim] — — Message 7/56
> yes I can negotiate on behalf of my org
[Victim] — — Message 8/56
> I confirm
[Akira] — — Message 9/56
> List.7z // 219 KB
[Akira] — — Message 10/56
> These files were taken from your network prior to encryption. You can pick 2-3 random files up to 10 MB each from the list and we will upload them to this chat as a proof of possession. To prove that we can properly decrypt your data you can upload 2-3 encrypted files up to 10 MB each to our chat and we will upload decrypted copies back. We're looking through your financial papers to come up with a reasonable demand to you. We offer: 1) full decryption assistance;
2) evidence of data removal;
3) security report on vulnerabilities we found;
4) guarantees not to publish or sell your data;
5) guarantees not to attack you in the future. Let me know whether you're interested in a whole deal or in parts. This will affect the final price.
[Victim] — — Message 11/56
> Hello any one there?
[Victim] — — Message 12/56
> Chat is not responsive had to reload
[Victim] — — Message 13/56
> 1
[Victim] — — Message 14/56
> [redacted].pdf.akira // 2.86 MB
[Victim] — — Message 15/56
> [redacted].oms.akira // 7.67 MB
[Victim] — — Message 16/56
> whole package
[Victim] — — Message 17/56
> hello anyone there
[Akira] — — Message 18/56
> Please wait.
[Akira] — — Message 19/56
> decrypted.7z // 10.5 MB
[Akira] — — Message 20/56
> We're willing to set a $250,000 price for ALL the services we offer.
[Victim] — — Message 21/56
> [redacted].pdf.akira // 10.2 MB
[Victim] — — Message 22/56
> Hello this is the owner of the company. If you looked at our bank statements you will see we could not even afford $2,500 let alone $250K
[Victim] — — Message 23/56
> Congratulations. You attacked literally the poorest company in [redacted]. Now you will essentially bankrupt us and 65 familes will not have money to buy food for their families. I know you have families to feed as well, but destroying our company and making families go without food is not the way to do it.
[Victim] — — Message 24/56
> Please understand that I am a very small business and I am not in a position to pay such a high amount. I want to resolve this matter as quickly as possible, but I need to negotiate a much lower amount. You arn't going to release everything for $0. But we can't afford much. We are going to miss payroll this Friday because of this entire situation, and we will have to deal with the damage you already caused over the weekend.
[Akira] — — Message 25/56
> So, what can you offer?
[Victim] — — Message 26/56
> We understand the seriousness of the situation, with our current situation we could offer 1200 for decryption services.
[Akira] — — Message 27/56
> You don't understand the seriousness of the situation. We will announce the incident soon.
[Akira] — — Message 28/56
> Are you going to increase your counter offer?
[Victim] — — Message 29/56
> Hello. This is the owner. I cannot afford what you are asking. You have literally put our company on the brink of bankrupty. You have to give me a reasonable number. My associate is a $400MIL drywall company and he only had to pay $10,000. We barely make any profit in our tiny company. You can see that from our finacial statements. Can we please work out a more reasonable ransom amount that we can afford and not force us into bankruptcy one way or another.
[Victim] — — Message 30/56
> I cannot afford much or we will not be able to make payroll or pay rent or buy supplies. Will you accept $4000. I cannot even afford this right now, but I will consider this a $4000 lesson that we need to focus more on network security from a very smart consultant, that being you.
[Akira] — — Message 31/56
> We cannot accept $4,000 or $10,000 fir this. If you want to come to an agreement, you should find a way to offer more. Waiting for your reply asap.
[Victim] — — Message 32/56
> I am sorry, we cannot even pay $10,000. We literally do not have any money to pay. $4,000 means us laying off 1 person to pay for this. $8000 would be laying off two people
[Victim] — — Message 33/56
> It is fine. It sounds like you do not see our situation even though you have all of our bank statements and financial information. If you look at them, then you will see $4000 is more than what we can afford. It is that bad for us right now. We aleady have planned to shut down operations because of this virus. So do what you have to do. I don't know what to tell you.
[Victim] — — Message 34/56
> even if i laid off 10 people, we could not pay for anything because we would not produce enough work to sell to generate the cash to pay bills. You want something we do not have. We lost - $335K in 2024. And 2025 is not starting off much better. We are just a small business trying to survive. You can ask for $10,000 or you would kill my child and I would not have the money to give to you.
[Akira] — — Message 35/56
> We will verify that information.
[Akira] — — Message 36/56
> [redacted].pdf // 32.4 KB
[Akira] — — Message 37/56
> This is not an argument that you've lost $335K in 2024. Previous years were profitable for you. So, we want you to stop trying to cheat us and make a fair deal. We don't want to make things more complicated and we hope you won't force us to take action.
[Victim] — — Message 38/56
> Did you klook at the tax returns? The PNL are not accurate. Look at the bank statements. they will tell you our situation. We barely have $20K in the bank most of the time. Money comes in slower than it goes out. If you see our 2024 bank statements you will see. We missed payroll 3 weeks ago. I am willing to pay you something. Nothing about this is fair. You are committing a criminal act. I am trying to pay you to commit a criminal act. I just want to move on. Our cashflow is miserable. This virus makes matters even worse. As we are unable to collect any money from any of our clients. You can keep accusing me of cheating but I am offering you want I can without bankrupting the company.
[Akira] — — Message 39/56
> We do not have your bank statements or up-to-date reports. We're willing to make an exclusion and come down to the bottom line. $100,000 and we will get you back on track.
[Akira] — — Message 40/56
> You can find your company name in our news column: [REDACTED URL]
If you want this post deleted, we must come to an agreement.
[Victim] — — Message 41/56
> Hello, we cannot afford that amount. Is there any other lower amount that can be considered?
[Akira] — — Message 42/56
> What is your maximum?
[Victim] — — Message 43/56
> We're a small business, all we can afford is $10,000.
[Akira] — — Message 44/56
> There is no way we agree to $10,000.
[Victim] — — Message 45/56
> We dont een have $10,000 in the bank right now. I have to sell our only company vehicle that has any value to pay for this. Please. We are finding ways to move on from this because we cabnnot afford what you are asking. I am simply asking if you can be reasonable and come up with a reasonable fee considering our situation.
[Akira] — — Message 46/56
> What amount you can call reasonable in this case? We are $90,000 apart. What do you suggest?
[Victim] — — Message 47/56
> just beause you ask for $100,000 means we are $90,000 apart. I am truly offering more than we have. We have not been able to bill a client for two months because you guys were smart enough to hit us before we could close out February. We are doing everything manually, but we have laid off 1/3 of our staff and just trying to pay the basic bills so we do not get sued or evicted. More layoffs are coming if we cannot start billing and collecting from our clients who owe us real money. It's 7-10 days just to clear the bitcoins. I don't een have $10,000 rgiht now, I would have to wait for the truck to sell this weekend, deposit the cash and convert to bitcoin. Whcih would be 11-15 more days from now
[Victim] — — Message 48/56
> i could sell some breand new materials and supplies for some money but I have to put that on ebay and wait for a buyer to bid on it in order to come up with more cash right now
[Victim] — — Message 49/56
> i will be honest, you probably would have made more money as our business consultant showing us how crappy our network security was and to tell me I only need 50% of our orginally staffing to to business
[Akira] — — Message 50/56
> We would maybe accept something less than $100,000 from you but that is not $10,000 for sure. If you cannot increase your offer, we have nothing to talk about.
[Victim] — — Message 51/56
> i am not going to insult you by incrementally going up. I will layoff 4 more employees and I can increase to $20,000 but i wont be able to realize the savings until next week. I will sell the truck this weekend and purchase the bitcoin once we have the free cash. By end of next week I should be able to free up $20,000 to buy bitcoins. But please that is the most i can do. And you are right, if $20,000 is not enough, there is nothing more to talk about
[Akira] — — Message 52/56
> Keep trying.
[Victim] — — Message 53/56
> Sir - Will you acceot $20K?
[Victim] — — Message 54/56
> accept
[Akira] — — Message 55/56
> No.
[Akira] — — Message 56/56
> The data of your company and your employees is now freely available.
[REDACTED URL]
We can delete them, but you have to agree to our terms and conditions.