Ransomware isn’t always about gangs making money. Sometimes it’s about nations manufacturing mayhem.

Ransomware is fundamentally about reaping massive profits from victims — payments were on pace to cross the billion-dollar threshold in 2021, according to the U.S. government — but there are signs foreign government-connected groups are increasingly moving into a territory dominated by criminal gangs, and for an entirely different motive: namely, causing chaos. Research that Microsoft and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike recently publicized separately concluded that Iranian hackers tied to Tehran had been conducting ransomware attacks that weren’t about making money, …

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