DeadLock is a ransomware family discovered in July 2025. It is notable for not being associated with any known affiliate programs and for lacking a Data Leak Site (DLS). This, combined with the limited number of reported victims, has resulted in low exposure for the group. However, Group-IB specialists have discovered an interesting use of Polygon smart contracts for proxy server address rotation or distribution.
This finding warrants public attention, especially since the abuse of this specific blockchain for malicious purposes has not been widely reported. In addition, the recent discovery of similar techniques show that the abuse of smart contracts for malicious purposes could become an emerging trend.
Read more…
Source: Group IB
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Ransomware is a global problem and getting worse, says US
November 1, 2022
The White House has brought together dozens of nations as well as representatives from big tech companies for a two-day summit aimed at figuring out how to tackle the global ransomware problem. “When you look at government networks, as we know — Costa Rica; Montenegro; Bank of Zambia; the city of Palermo, Italy, — this is ...
- APT trends report Q3 2022
November 1, 2022
For more than five years, the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky has been publishing quarterly summaries of advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. These summaries are based on Kaspersky threat intelligence research; and they provide a representative snapshot of what Kaspersky researchers have published and discussed in greater detail in their private APT ...
- APT10: Tracking down LODEINFO 2022, part I
October 31, 2022
Kaspersky has been tracking activities involving the LODEINFO malware family since 2019, looking for new modifications and thoroughly investigating any attacks utilizing those new variants. LODEINFO is sophisticated fileless malware first named in a blogpost from JPCERT/CC in February 2020. The malware was regularly modified and upgraded by the developers to target media, diplomatic, governmental and ...
- Banking Trojan Techniques: How Financially Motivated Malware Became Infrastructure
October 31, 2022
While advanced persistent threats get the most breathless coverage in the news, many threat actors have money on their mind rather than espionage. You can learn a lot about the innovations used by these financially motivated groups by watching banking Trojans. Because attackers constantly create new techniques to evade detection and perform malicious acts, studying monetarily ...
- New Azov data wiper tries to frame researchers and BleepingComputer
October 30, 2022
A new and destructive ‘Azov Ransomware’ data wiper is being heavily distributed through pirated software, key generators, and adware bundles, trying to frame well-known security researchers by claiming they are behind the attack. The Azov Ransomware falsely claims to have been created by a well-known security researcher named Hasherazade and lists other researchers, myself, and BleepingComputer, ...
- Russian spies ‘hacked Liz Truss’s phone and stole sensitive messages’
October 29, 2022
Liz Truss had her phone hacked by Kremlin spies while she was working as foreign secretary, according to a report. The former prime minister’s personal messages with former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng were raided, as well as sensitive details of international negotiations, it is claimed. Security services discovered the major security breach during the summer Tory leadership election, ...