In an announcement that seemed a major coup against the scourge of ransomware, the U.S. Justice Department revealed this week that the FBI had taken control of infrastructure used by the notorious ALPHV/Blackcat cybercrime group and provided decryption keys to over 400 of its victims. However, far from stopping ALPHV/Blackcat, the operation appears to have only angered the Russia-based gang and spurred renewed threats.

As described by the DOJ, ALPHV/Blackcat had become “the second most prolific ransomware-as-a-service variant in the world,” squeezing hundreds of millions in ransom payments from hospitals, schools, companies, and other victims through a model where its core developers supply ransomware code to “affiliates” who then carry out attacks and give the gang a cut. Victims described having their most critical files and systems encrypted into gibberish, with demands for massive Bitcoin payments in return for needed decryption keys.

The DOJ explained this week that the FBI had been able to “copy and remove” this pool of ransomware decryption keys during the court-authorized disruption of ALPHV/Blackcat’s digital infrastructure. This allowed the creation of a “master decryption key” that has so far helped hundreds of past victims recover files and data they assumed lost forever.

Rather than kneecapping ALPHV/Blackcat, however, the much-hailed FBI operation seems to have barely slowed the brazen ransomware group. According to monitoring by cybersecurity journalists, ALPHV/Blackcat claims to have already restored its dark web operations. And chillingly, say observers, the gang has now dropped past restrictions meant to prevent affiliates from targeting hospitals, energy infrastructure, and other critical systems.

This response points to the hydra-like nature of these virtual criminal networks. For FBI crackdowns dull one head of the beast, two more arise fueled by anger, greed, and an endless supply of new hackers. If anything, the case shows ransomware remains as urgent a threat as ever to America’s national and economic security.

The question now is whether this globe-spanning ring of digital extortionists can ever truly be stopped if even the FBI’s best efforts only bring increasingly brazen retaliation.