What defines success for ransomware actors during an attack? Breaching a victim’s network, exfiltrating valuable data, and encrypting systems are crucial components. However, the ultimate measurement of success is the actor’s ability to extort a ransom payment, which determines if they achieve their financial goals. Navigating the ransom negotiation phase, whether conducted by the victims themselves or designated recovery firms, demands a high level of expertise and a deep understanding of the attackers involved. This includes studying of the threat actor’s profile, tactics, and evolving strategies. In this complex landscape, there is no one-size-fits-all playbook for successfully managing the negotiation phase, as each ransomware group exhibits distinct behaviors and adopts new tactics shaped by many factors.
While the main trend in the cyber threat landscape in recent months has been MoveIt and Cl0p, NCC Groups’ Cyber Incident Response Team have also been handling multiple different ransomware groups over the same period.
In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, one consistent trend witnessed in recent years is the unsettling rise in ransomware attacks. These nefarious acts of digital extortion have left countless victims scrambling to safeguard their data, resources, and even their livelihoods. To counter this threat, every person in the cyber security theatre has a responsibility to shine light on current threat actor Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP’S) to assist in improving defences and the overall threat landscape.
Octo Tempest employs tactics that many of its targets aren't prepared for.
The infamous Clop ransomware, mainly known as Cl0p, targets various industries and organizations, extorting data for a huge amount of ransom. It advances actively with new emerging campaigns. This blog walks through the Clop timeline, Mitre TTPs and their emulation.
QakBot is a banking trojan that has been evolving since its first version was discovered in 2008. According to the 2022 report published by CISA, it was one of the most active variants in 2021, and during 2022 and so far in 2023 it has remained quite active. Taking a brief look at the latests news of QakBot it has been updating its tactics constantly, for example, using a Windows zero-day to avoid displaying the MoTW or the most recent one, using OneNote files to drop QakBot.
In this case we are particularly interested in the anti-analysis techniques used by QakBot during the early stages of its execution. These techniques can make malware analysis harder if they are not known, so learning to identify and bypass them is essential to get to see the malware’s operation at its full potential. Furthermore, there are techniques that can replicate / adopt different types of malware, so knowking them opens the door to the study of different samples.
This post explores some of the TTPs employed by a threat actor who was observed deploying ShadowPad during an incident response engagement.
We want to familiarize the reader with the different stages of ransomware deployment and provide a visual guide to defending against targeted ransomware attacks.
While Mac enterprise networks are not as common as Windows, and subject to less targeting by adversaries, recent CrowdStrike Falcon Overwatch observations shed light on sophisticated tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) targeting Mac environments.
