No Manners Here: The Ruthless Rise of The Gentlemen Ransomware


The Gentlemen (aka Storm-2697) is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) program active since at least July 2025. Public reporting indicates that the operators were likely active months earlier as an affiliate (known as ArmCorp) of Qilin RaaS, which Unit 42 tracks as Spikey Scorpius. Their ransomware variants are written in both C and Go programming languages, enabling the threat actors to spread their encryptors across different operating systems and virtual infrastructure.

Additional public reporting revealed that the operators (roughly 20 of them) likely morphed from a private entity into a RaaS model on or about September 2025. While traditional RaaS models typically offer affiliates a 70% to 80% cut of paid ransoms, The Gentlemen offer an unprecedented 90% payout.

Read more…
Source:  Palo Alto Unit 42


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Jamaica: Police charge 6 people in connection with cyber attack on account of bank customer

    December 7, 2024

    The six people arrested last week in connection with a multi-million dollar cyber attack on the account of a customer of the National Commercial Bank, have been charged. This was disclosed by Dane Nicholson, Head of the Anti-Fraud Committee of the Jamaica Banker’s Association, who said the suspects were charged on Thursday and are booked to ...

  • Europol: Fraudulent shopping sites tied to cybercrime marketplace taken offline

    December 5, 2024

    Europol has supported the dismantling of a sophisticated criminal network responsible for facilitating large-scale online fraud. In an operation led by the Hanover Police Department (Polizeidirektion Hannover) and the Verden Public Prosecutor’s Office (Staatsanwaltschaft Verden) in Germany, and supported by law enforcement authorities across Europe, over 50 servers were seized, significant digital evidence was secured, ...

  • Black Basta Ransomware Campaign Drops Zbot, DarkGate, and Custom Malware

    December 4, 2024

    Beginning in early October, Rapid7 has observed a resurgence of activity related to the ongoing social engineering campaign being conducted by Black Basta ransomware operators. Rapid7 initially reported the discovery of the novel social engineering campaign back in May, 2024, followed by an update in August 2024, when the operators updated their tactics and malware payloads ...

  • NCA disrupts $multi-billion Russian money laundering networks with links to, drugs, ransomware and espionage, resulting in 84 arrests

    December 4, 2024

    An international NCA-led investigation – Operation Destabilise – has exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world: spanning from the streets of the UK, to the Middle East, Russia, and South America. Investigators have identified two Russian-speaking networks collaborating at the heart of the criminal enterprise; Smart and TGR. ...

  • 63% of companies plan to pass data breach costs to customers

    December 4, 2024

    The rising practice of shaking down customers to pay for security shortfalls could have a silver lining for CISOs, as diluted price competitiveness could convince top brass of the ROI of cybersecurity investments. Consumers may be more on the hook for paying for the rising costs of data breaches than they realize, as companies increasingly turn ...

  • Ireland: Woman, 20s, arrested over potential data breach at utility service provider

    December 4, 2024

    A woman has been arrested over a potential data breach at a national utility service provider last year. The woman, aged in her 20s, was arrested yesterday and is detained at a garda station in Dublin. The potential breach was identified by members of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau in 2023. It was referred to ...