The sale and purchase of unauthorized access to compromised enterprise networks has become a linchpin for cybercriminal operations, particularly in facilitating ransomware attacks.
Underground forums are sharing guidelines on breaching networks and selling the access they obtain, leaving the exploitation to other malicious actors. On underground criminal forums, these transactions allow actors with complementary skills to collaborate, amplifying the impact and reach of cyberattacks. The market for such access has grown notably, especially as ransomware operators increasingly employ double-extortion tactics.
Read more…
Source: Rapid7
Related:
- Closing the Door: DeadBolt Ransomware Locks Out Vendors With Multitiered Extortion Scheme
June 6, 2022
The DeadBolt ransomware kicked off 2022 with a slew of attacks that targeted internet-facing Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices. It was first seen targeting QNAP Systems, Inc. in January 2022. According to a report from attack surface solutions provider Censys.io, as of Jan. 26, 2022, out of 130,000 QNAP NAS devices that were potential targets, 4,988 ...
- Costa Rican government held up by ransomware … again
June 6, 2022
Last month the notorious Russian ransomware gang Conti threatened to overthrow Costa Rica’s government if a ransom wasn’t paid. This month, another band of extortionists has attacked the nation. Fresh off an intrusion by Conti last month, Costa Rica has been attacked by the Hive ransomware gang. According to the AP, Hive hit Costa Rica’s Social ...
- The Hacker Gold Rush That’s Poised to Eclipse Ransomware
June 5, 2022
Ransomware attacks, including those of the massively disruptive and dangerous variety, have proved difficult to combat comprehensively. Hospitals, government agencies, schools, and even critical infrastructure companies continue to face debilitating attacks and large ransom demands from hackers. But as governments around the world and law enforcement in the United States have grown serious about cracking ...
- Understanding REvil: REvil Threat Actors May Have Returned (Updated)
June 3, 2022
REvil has emerged as one of the world’s most notorious ransomware operators. In summer 2021, it extracted an $11 million payment from the U.S. subsidiary of the world’s largest meatpacking company based in Brazil, demanded $5 million from a Brazilian medical diagnostics company and launched a large-scale attack on dozens, perhaps hundreds, of companies that ...
- Novartis says no sensitive data was compromised in cyberattack
June 3, 2022
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis says no sensitive data was compromised in a recent cyberattack by the Industrial Spy data-extortion gang. Industrial Spy is a hacking group that runs an extortion marketplace where they sell data stolen from compromised organizations. Yesterday, the hacking group began selling data allegedly stolen from Novartis on their Tor extortion marketplace for $500,000 in ...
- Healthcare organizations face rising ransomware attacks – and are paying up
June 3, 2022
Healthcare organizations, already an attractive target for ransomware given the highly sensitive data they hold, saw such attacks almost double between 2020 and 2021, according to a survey released this week by Sophos. The outfit’s team also found that while polled healthcare orgs are quite likely to pay ransoms, they rarely get all of their data ...
