Threat Assessment: Ignoble Scorpius, Distributors of BlackSuit Ransomware


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


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Multiple Threats Target Adobe ColdFusion Vulnerabilities

    August 30, 2023

    This past July, Adobe responded to reports of exploits targeting pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities in their ColdFusion solution by releasing a series of security updates: APSB23-40, APSB23-41, and APSB23-47. An in-depth analysis of those exploits has been documented by Project Discovery, including a significant vulnerability in the WDDX deserialization process within Adobe ColdFusion ...

  • Diving Deep into UNC4841 Operations Following Barracuda ESG Zero-Day Remediation (CVE-2023-2868)

    August 29, 2023

    On June 15, 2023, Mandiant released a blog post detailing an 8-month-long global espionage campaign conducted by a Chinese-nexus threat group tracked as UNC4841. Over the course of this follow up blog post, Mandiant researchers will detail how UNC4841 has continued to show sophistication and adaptability in response to remediation efforts. Specifically, UNC4841 deployed new and ...

  • For the win? Offensive research contests on criminal forums

    August 29, 2023

    If you’re a security researcher who wants to share your innovations and insights with the wider community (and gain some peer recognition into the bargain), you’ve got a few options: present at conferences; write papers, blogs etc. The legitimate side of the house is awash with opportunities. But what if you’re a threat actor, whose research ...

  • CISA Releases IOCs Associated with Malicious Barracuda Activity

    August 29, 2023

    CISA has released additional indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with exploitation of CVE-2023-2868. CVE-2023-2868 is a remote command injection vulnerability affecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway (ESG) Appliance, versions 5.1.3.001-9.2.0.006. Malicious threat actors exploited this vulnerability as a zero day as early as October 2022 to gain access to ESG appliances. Read more… Source: U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure ...

  • Deconstructing ransomware, cybercriminals and their modus operandi

    August 29, 2023

    The problem of ransomware is a seemingly age-old problem that is not going away, at least not any time soon. Governments and law enforcement are banding together to try to battle this issue with financial sanctions and takedowns of the groups behind ransomware attacks but they’re like the mythical beast Hydra – take the head ...

  • Leaseweb trying to restore service following cyberattack

    August 28, 2023

    Cloud provider Leaseweb was forced to take some of its critical systems down to mitigate the effects of an ongoing cyberattack. One of the world’s largest cloud and hosting providers, Leasweb contacted its customers to alert them it spotted “unusual” activity in some parts of its infrastructure. To minimize the potential damages and oust the unauthorized ...