Ransomware
The state of ransomware: Fragmented but still potent despite takedowns
Increased law enforcement actions, improved international collaboration, and a growing refusal by victims to pay extortion demands has led a drop in ransomware payments by around a third. Total volume of ransom payments dropped from $1.25 billion in 2023 to $811million last year, according to a recent study by blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis. In…
Leaked Black Basta Ransomware Chat Logs Reveal Inner Workings and Internal Conflicts
More than a year’s worth of internal chat logs from a ransomware gang known as Black Basta have been published online in a leak that provides unprecedented visibility into their tactics and internal conflicts among its members. The Russian-language chats on the Matrix messaging platform between September 18, 2023, and September 28, 2024, were initially…
Sophos MDR tracks two ransomware campaigns using “email bombing,” Microsoft Teams “vishing”
Sophos X-Ops’ Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is actively responding to incidents tied to two separate groups of threat actors, each of which have used the functionality of Microsoft’s Office 365 platform to gain access to targeted organizations with the likely goal of stealing data and deploying ransomware. Sophos MDR began investigating these two separate…
The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2024
For its entire existence as a global medium, the internet’s evolution has been caught in a tug of war, pulled by opposing forces: on one side, moderation and control; on the other, disruption and anarchy. This year, the most prominent actors weighing in on the side of disruption were familiar faces: The reckless oligarchs, cybercriminals,…
LockBit Developer Rostislav Panev Charged for Billions in Global Ransomware Damages
A dual Russian and Israeli national has been charged in the United States for allegedly being the developer of the now-defunct LockBit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation since its inception in or around 2019 through at least February 2024. Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel earlier this August and is currently awaiting extradition, the U.S. Department…