Since March 2023, Akira ransomware has impacted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia. In April 2023, following an initial focus on Windows systems, Akira threat actors deployed a Linux variant targeting VMware ESXi virtual machines.
As of January 1, 2024, the ransomware group has impacted over 250 organizations and claimed approximately $42 million USD in ransomware proceeds. Early versions of the Akira ransomware variant were written in C++ and encrypted files with a .akira extension; however, beginning in August 2023, some Akira attacks began deploying Megazord, using Rust-based code which encrypts files with a .powerranges extension.
Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division
Related:
- Threat Brief: Maze Ransomware Activities
May 8, 2020
Since the beginning of the calendar year, Palo Alto Networks has detected an uptick in Maze ransomware samples across multiple industries. As a result, we’ve created this general threat assessment post on the Maze ransomware activities and a full visualization of these techniques can be viewed in the Unit 42 Playbook Viewer. Maze ransomware, a variant of ChaCha ...
- Security researcher identifies new APT group mentioned in 2017 Shadow Brokers leak
April 22, 2020
Three years and eight days ago, on April 14, 2017, a mysterious group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers published a collection of hacking tools that ended up changing the internet forever. Known as the “Lost in Translation” dump, this collection of files included tens of hacking tools and exploits stolen from the US National ...
- Cognizant hit by ‘Maze’ ransomware attack
April 19, 2020
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp on Saturday said it was hit by a “Maze” ransomware cyber attack, resulting in service disruptions for some of its clients. The information technology services provider said it was taking steps to contain the incident, with the help of cyber defense companies, and has also engaged with law enforcement authorities. Ransomware is a ...
- RagnarLocker ransomware hits EDP energy giant, asks for €10M
April 14, 2020
Attackers using the Ragnar Locker ransomware have encrypted the systems of Portuguese multinational energy giant Energias de Portugal (EDP) and are now asking for a 1580 BTC ransom ($10.9M or €9.9M). EDP Group is one of the largest European operators in the energy sector (gas and electricity) and the world’s 4th largest producer of wind energy. The company is present ...
- Travelex Pays $2.3M in Bitcoin to Hackers Who Hijacked Network in January
April 10, 2020
Travelex has paid out $2.3 million in Bitcoin to hackers to regain access to its global network after a malware attack at the new year knocked the global currency exchange offline and crippled its business during the month of January. The move—reported by the Wall Street Journal—may seem counterintuitive, as experts in the past have typically recommended that companies ...
- Investigation into a Nefilim Attack Shows Signs of Lateral Movement, Possible Data Exfiltration
April 3, 2020
Trend Micro’s Managed XDR (MxDR) and Incident Response (IR) teams recently investigated an incident involving a company that was hit by the Nefilim ransomware, which was initially discovered in March 2020. What makes Nefilim especially devious is that the threat actors behind the attack threaten to release the victim’s stolen data on an online leak site. This represents a ...