LockBit has been receiving a fair share of attention recently. Last week, SentinelLabs reported on LockBit 3.0 (aka LockBit Black), describing how the latest iteration of this increasingly prevalent RaaS implemented a series of anti-analysis and anti-debugging routines. Our research was quickly followed up by others reporting similar findings.…

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In June 2022, LockBit revealed version 3.0 of its ransomware. In this blog entry, we discuss the findings from our own technical analysis of this variant and its behaviors, many of which are similar to those of the BlackMatter ransomware.

In March 2022,  less than a year after LockBit 2.0 first emerged, researchers caught wind of an upcoming new variant of the LockBit ransomware. LockBit…

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By Jim Walter & Aleksandar Milenkoski

LockBit 3.0 ransomware (aka LockBit Black) is an evolution of the prolific LockBit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) family, which has roots that extend back to BlackMatter and related entities. After critical bugs were discovered in LockBit 2.0 in March 2022, the authors began work on updating their encryption routines and adding several new features designed to thwart researchers.…

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By Securonix Threat Labs, Threat Research: Den Iuzvyk, Tim Peck

July 5, 2022

Introduction

A new malware loader named BumbleBee is actively being used to target businesses using mass phishing or spear-phishing campaigns as an initial attack vector. Malware loaders (or droppers) are commonly used by ransomware groups and other APTs to distribute payloads as they are extremely effective during the initial stages of compromise.…

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Zero-day exploits or recently patched/unpatched vulnerabilities are attractive targets for Threat Actors (TAs) to deploy malware efficiently. TAs leverages these vulnerabilities and exploits them to deliver the various types of malware to steal sensitive information for financial gain.

On June 11th, 2022, Microsoft tweeted a post where they mentioned that CVE-2022-26134 was being exploited to download and deploy the Cerber2021 ransomware (also known as “CerberImposter”).…

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UNC2165 Overlaps with Evil Corp Activity

OFAC sanctions against Evil Corp in December 2019 were announced in conjunction with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) unsealing of indictments against individuals for their roles in the Bugat malware operation, updated versions of which were later called DRIDEX. DRIDEX was believed to operate under an affiliate model with multiple actors involved in the distribution of the malware.…

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ITG23 Crypters Highlight Cooperation Between Cybercriminal Groups

cybercriminal group ITG23, also known as Wizard Spider, DEV-0193, or simply the “Trickbot Group”. The results of this research, along with evidence gained from the disclosure of internal ITG23 chat logs (“Contileaks”), provide new insight into the connections and cooperation between prominent cybercriminal groups whose attacks often lead to ransomware.…

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In early December 2021, a new ransomware actor started advertising its services on a Russian underground forum. They presented themselves as ALPHV, a new generation Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) group. Shortly afterwards, they dialed up their activity, infecting numerous corporate victims around the world. The group is also known as BlackCat.…

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Key Takeaways: An in-depth analysis of Midas and trends across other Thanos ransomware variants reveals how ransomware groups shifted tactics in 2021 to:

lower sunk costs by using RaaS builders to reduce development time increase payouts with double extortion tactics by using their own data leak sites extend the length and effectiveness of campaigns to get the highest investment returns by updating payloads and/or rebranding their own ransomware group

Advertised on the darkweb for Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), Thanos ransomware was first identified in February 2020.…

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BlackCat is a recent and growing ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group that targeted several organizations worldwide over the past few months. There are rumors of a relationship between BlackCat and the BlackMatter/DarkSide ransomware groups, infamous for attacking the Colonial Pipeline last year. According to a BlackCat representative, BlackCat is not a rebranding of BlackMatter, but its team is made from affiliates of other RaaS groups (including BlackMatter).…
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In March 2022, we came across evidence that another, relatively unknown, ransomware known as Nokoyawa is likely connected with Hive, as the two families share some striking similarities in their attack chain, from the tools used to the order in which they execute various steps.

Hive, which is one of the more notable ransomware families of 2021, made waves in the latter half of the year after breaching over 300 organizations in just four months — allowing the group to earn what could potentially be millions of US dollars in profit.…

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