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.
The Spanish police have arrested 34 members of the cybercriminal group that is accused of having stolen data of over 4M individuals.
Clop, a Russian-speaking hacking group specialising in ransomware, has its own website. Yes, this is a thing — criminals openly encouraging their victims to negotiate a ransom for the return of their data as though it were a legitimate commercial deal.
Uptycs threat research team discovered a new ransomware Linux binary attributed to the RTM group Locker, a known Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider.
The group is blackmailing Ring on its site: "There's always an option to let us leak your data," they posted.
Low-level crimeware gang has been exploiting misconfigured and publicly accessible Docker and other cloud instances with roaring success.
XVigil discovered a financially motivated threat actor group, dubbed Eternity group, actively operating on the internet, selling worms, stealers, DDoS tools, and ransomware builders.
Microsoft and identity management platform Okta both this week disclosed breaches involving LAPSUS$, a relatively new cybercrime group that specializes in stealing data from big companies and threatening to publish it unless a ransom demand is paid. Here’s a closer look at LAPSUS$, and some of the low-tech but high-impact methods the group uses to gain access to targeted organizations.
You may not have missed all the noises recently caused by Lapsus$, a group that seems to specialize in extortion without necessarily leveraging ransomware.
At first glance, Lapsus$ check marks all elements that would make researchers put them in the low priority threats, especially considering their readiness to make dramas and OpSec failures. Except that the group has successfully managed to significantly enrich its victim list with high profile corporations, thus drawing all our attention.
In the following, we will describe the threat actor profile that was drawn by our investigations based either on OSINT, dark web or infrastructure analysis.
The activity we have observed has been attributed to a threat group that Microsoft tracks as DEV-0537, also known as LAPSUS$. DEV-0537 is known for using a pure extortion and destruction model without deploying ransomware payloads.
