The U.S. State Department on Wednesday offered up to $10 million for information on the "Blackcat" ransomware gang who hit the UnitedHealth Group's tech unit and snarled insurance payments across America.
"The ALPHV Blackcat ransomware-as-a-service group compromised computer networks of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and worldwide," the department said in a statement announcing the reward offer.
website used by hackers responsible for a breach at UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab has been replaced by a notice saying it has been seized by international law enforcement.
But at least one of the agencies allegedly responsible said it had nothing to do with the seizure, raising the possibility that the hackers - who also go by the moniker ALPHV - faked their own takedown.
A message posted to the website of the Blackcat hacking gang on Tuesday said it had been impounded "as part of a coordinated law enforcement action" by U.S. authorities and other law enforcement agencies. Among the logos of non-American agencies involved were those of Europol and Britain's National Crime Agency.
This blog post provides a detailed look at the TTPs of a ransomware affiliate operator. In this case, the endpoint had been moved to another infrastructure (as illustrated by various command lines, and confirmed by the partner), so while Huntress SOC analysts reported the activity to the partner, no Huntress customer was impacted by the ransomware deployment.
Le site vitrine de la franchise Alphv/BlackCat affiche désormais un message indiquant qu’il a été saisi par les autorités. Mais une vitrine alternative est en ligne, mais le coup est très sérieux.
The Justice Department announced today a disruption campaign against the Blackcat ransomware group — also known as ALPHV or Noberus — that has targeted the computer networks of more than 1,000 victims and caused harm around the world since its inception, including networks that support U.S. critical infrastructure.
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.
We found that malicious actors used malvertising to distribute malware via cloned webpages of legitimate organizations. The distribution involved a webpage of the well-known application WinSCP, an open-source Windows application for file transfer. We were able to identify that this activity led to a BlackCat (aka ALPHV) infection, and actors also used SpyBoy, a terminator that tampers with protection provided by agents.
Cybercrime groups that specialize in stealing corporate data and demanding a ransom not to publish it have tried countless approaches to shaming their victims into paying. The latest innovation in ratcheting up the heat comes from the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group,…