Unleashing the Kraken ransomware group

In August 2025, Cisco Talos observed big-game hunting and double extortion attacks carried out by Kraken, a Russian-speaking group that has emerged from the remnants of the HelloKitty ransomware cartel. Talos observed in one intrusion that the Kraken actor exploited Server Message Block SMB...

Cisco Rejects Kraken Ransomware’s Data Breach Claims

Cisco denies recent data breach claims by the Kraken ransomware group, stating leaked credentials are from a resolved 2022 incident. Learn more about Cisco's response and the details of the original attack...

Kraken Ransomware Upgrades Distribution with RaaS Model

The Kraken ransomware author has released a second version of the malicious code, along with a unique affiliate program on the Dark Web. According to research into Kraken v.2 the new version is being promoted in a ransomware-as-a-service RaaS model to underground forum customers, via a video...

Exploit kits: fall 2018 review

Exploit kit EK activity continues to surprise us as the weather cools, the leaves change, and we move into the fall of 2018. Indeed, shortly after our summer review, a new exploit kit was discovered, and while no new vulnerabilities were added to the current EKs, several malvertising chains are...