Unit 42 researchers have observed an increase in BlackSuit ransomware activity beginning in March 2024 that suggests a ramp up of operations. This threat emerged as a rebrand of Royal ransomware, which occurred in May 2023. Unit 42 tracks the group behind this threat as Ignoble Scorpius.
Since the rebrand, Unit 42 has observed at least 93 victims globally, a quarter of which were in the construction and manufacturing industries. The group describes themselves as an “extortioner named BlackSuit” and claims to reverse file encryption for “quite a small compensation essentially.” Although the group states the compensation is small, Unit 42 has observed that, on average, the initial ransom demand is about equal to 1.6% of the victim organization’s annual revenue.
Read more…
Source: Trend Micro
Related:
- Exploring Encrypted Attacks Amidst the AI Revolution
December 14, 2023
Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers analyzed 29.8 billion blocked threats embedded in encrypted traffic from October 2022 to September 2023 in the Zscaler cloud, presenting their findings in the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2023 State of Encrypted Attacks Report. According to the Google Transparency Report, encrypted traffic saw a significant rise in the last decade, reaching 95% of global traffic ...
- Microsoft patches 34 vulnerabilities, including one zero-day
December 13, 2023
December’s Patch Tuesday is a relatively quiet one on the Microsoft front. Redmond has patched 34 vulnerabilities with only four rated as critical. One vulnerability, a previously disclosed unpatched vulnerability in AMD central processing units (CPUs), was shifted by AMD to software developers. Read more… Source: Malwarebytes labs
- Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Exploiting JetBrains TeamCity CVE Globally
December 13, 2023
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and partners assess Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) cyber actors – also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 (APT 29), the Dukes, CozyBear, and NOBELIUM/Midnight Blizzard – are exploiting CVE-2023-42793 a at a large scale, targeting servers hosting JetBrains TeamCity software since September 2023. Software developers use TeamCity software ...
- The sound of you typing on your keyboard could reveal your password
December 12, 2023
As if password authentication’s coffin needed any more nails, researchers in the UK have discovered yet another way to hammer one in. The technique, developed at Durham University, the University of Surrey, and Royal Holloway University of London, builds on previous work to produce a more accurate way to guess your password by listening to ...
- Kyivstar explains network failure by hacker attack, subscriber data not compromised
December 12, 2023
A failure in the network of Ukraine’s largest telecoms operator Kyivstar, which occurred on Tuesday morning, was caused by a hacker attack, but subscriber data was not compromised, the company involved law enforcement agencies and special government services in eliminating the failure, and promises compensation to customers. “On the morning of December 12, the Kyivstar communications ...
- Bitcoin ATM company Coin Cloud hacked
December 12, 2023
In November, the cybersecurity collective vx-underground wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that unknown hackers were claiming to have breached Coin Cloud, a bankrupt Bitcoin ATM company. According to vx-underground, the hackers claimed to have stolen 70,000 pictures of customers taken from cameras embedded in the ATMs, as well as the personal data of 300,000 customers, which ...

