Optum’s Change Healthcare has started to bring systems back online after suffering a crippling BlackCat ransomware attack last month that led to widespread disruption to the US healthcare system.
United Health Group (UHG) is the largest American health insurance company, and its subsidiary, Optum Solutions, operates the Change Healthcare platform.…
Nation-state cyber threat groups are once again turning to USBs to compromise highly guarded government organizations and critical infrastructure facilities.
Having fallen out of fashion for some time, and certainly not helped by COVID lockdowns, USBs are once again proving an effective way for high-level threat actors to physically bypass security at particularly sensitive organizations.…
Change Healthcare breach
There is evidence that the ransomware group behind the Change Healthcare breach, which has caused chaos for hospitals and pharmacies attempting to handle prescriptions, may have received $22 million from UnitedHealth Group.
Researchers studying security issues discovered a post made by an associate member claiming to be a member of the ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware group in a Russian forum used by cybercriminals.…
Originating in the latter part of 2023, this Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation has drawn attention due to its technical lineage and operational tactics resembling those of the notorious Hive ransomware group. With law enforcement agencies previously disrupting Hive, Hunters International’s rise just after the operation underscores the persistent and adaptive nature of cybercriminal networks.…
In recent months, the Malek Team, a hacker group with alleged links to Iran, has escalated its cyber offensive against key Israeli institutions, marking a significant uptick in digital threats within the region. The Malek Team, which has previously targeted a private college in Israel, claimed responsibility for a sophisticated cyberattack on Israel’s Ziv Medical Center.…
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Executive SummaryUnit 42 researchers have been tracking the BianLian ransomware group, which has been in the top 10 of the most active groups based on leak site data we’ve gathered. From that leak site data, we’ve primarily observed activity affecting the healthcare and manufacturing sectors and industries, and impacting organizations mainly in the United States (US) and Europe (EU).…
While cybercriminals are often portrayed as gangs of hackers or lone brilliant coders, more often they buy and sell goods and services as part of a larger criminal economy. For example, some actors sell malware services, and malware-as-a-service (MaaS) allows buyers easy access to the infrastructure necessary to commit crimes.…
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Our recent research has highlighted the presence of the MedusaLocker ransomware, which first surfaced in mid-2019. Its primary targets are the Hospital and Healthcare industries. MedusaLocker employs AES and RSA encryption techniques to encrypt victims’ data.
Technical analysis
At the start, it performs a check for the presence of a Mutex.…
Our recent research has highlighted the presence of the MedusaLocker ransomware, which first surfaced in mid-2019. Its primary targets are the Hospital and Healthcare industries. MedusaLocker employs AES and RSA encryption techniques to encrypt victims’ data.
Technical AnalysisAt the start, it performs a check for the presence of a Mutex.…
The Budworm advanced persistent threat (APT) group continues to actively develop its toolset. Most recently, the Threat Hunter Team in Symantec, part of Broadcom, discovered Budworm using an updated version of one of its key tools to target a Middle Eastern telecommunications organization and an Asian government.
Both attacks occurred in August 2023.…
eSentire, a top global Managed Detection and Response (MDR) security services provider, intercepted and shut down three separate ransomware attacks launched by affiliates of the notorious, Russia-linked LockBit Ransomware Gang. The FBI estimates that the LockBit operators and their affiliates have collected approximately $91 million since the group’s inception, and that is just U.S.…
In this blogpost, ESET researchers take a look at Spacecolon, a small toolset used to deploy variants of the Scarab ransomware to victims all over the world. It probably finds its way into victim organizations by its operators compromising vulnerable web servers or via brute forcing RDP credentials.…
By Securonix Threat Labs, Threat Research: D. Iuzvyk, T. Peck, O. Kolesnikov
TL;DRAn unusual attack/phishing campaign delivering malware while using meme-filled code and complex obfuscation methods continues dropping Xworm payloads for the last few months and is still ongoing today.
IntroFor the last few months, an interesting and ongoing attack campaign was identified and tracked by the Securonix Threat Research team.…
On 21st March 2023, EclecticIQ researchers detected a spearphishing email targeting the healthcare industry in Poland. The spoofed email was designed to appear as legitimately sent from a Polish government entity called the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia – NFZ).
The email contained a malicious Microsoft Excel XLL attachment that can download and execute Vidar Infostealer malware upon user execution.…
By Max Kersten · April 13, 2023
The underground intelligence was obtained by N07_4_B07.
Another day, another ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) provider, or so it seems. We’ve observed the “Read The Manual” (RTM) Locker gang, previously known for their e-crime activities, targeting corporate environments with their ransomware, and forcing their affiliates to follow a strict ruleset.…
MedusaLocker ransomware has been active since September 2019. MedusaLocker actors typically gain access to victims’ networks by exploiting vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
Once Threat Actors (TAs) gain access to the network, they encrypt the victim’s data and leave a ransom note with instructions on how victims can communicate with the TAs in every folder while encrypting files.…