FBI, Europol, and NCA Take Down 8Base Ransomware Data Leak and Negotiation Sites

--- Source: The Nation A coordinated law enforcement operation has taken down the dark web data leak and negotiation sites associated with the 8Base ransomware gang. Visitors to the data leak site are now greeted with a seizure banner that says: "This hidden site and the criminal content have bee...

A week in security (December 2 – December 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Europol takes down criminal data hub Manson Market in busy month for law enforcement Americans urged to use encrypted messaging after large, ongoing cyberattack Crypto’s rising value likely to bring new wave of scams AI chatbot provider exposes 346,000 customer...

No company too small for Phobos ransomware gang, indictment reveals

The US Department of Justice has charged a Russian national named Evgenii Ptitsyn with selling, operating, and distributing a ransomware variant known as “Phobos” during a four-year cybercriminal campaign that extorted at least $16 million from victims across the world. The government’s indictmen...

Phobos: Stealthy Ransomware That Operated Under the Radar - Until Now

Phobos: Stealthy Ransomware That Operated Under the Radar - Until Now By Jambul Tologonov, John Fokker and Duy-Phuc Pham · November 20, 2024 On November 18th, the US Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Russian national for allegedly administering the sale, distribution, and...

Phobos Ransomware Aggressively Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have warned of Phobos ransomware attacks targeting government and critical infrastructure entities, outlining the various tactics and techniques the threat actors have adopted to deploy the file-encrypting malware. "Structured as a ransomware as a...

CISA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Release Advisory on Phobos Ransomware

Today, CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center MS-ISAC released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory CSA, StopRansomware: Phobos Ransomware, to disseminate known tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs and indicators of compromise IOCs...

Albabat, Kasseika, Kuiper: New Ransomware Gangs Rise with Rust and Golang

Cybersecurity researchers have detected in the wild yet another variant of the Phobos ransomware family known as Faust. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs, which detailed the latest iteration of the ransomware, said it's being propagated by means of an infection that delivers a Microsoft Excel document .XL...

8Base Group Deploying New Phobos Ransomware Variant via SmokeLoader

The threat actors behind the 8Base ransomware are leveraging a variant of the Phobos ransomware to conduct their financially motivated attacks. The findings come from Cisco Talos, which has recorded an increase in activity carried out by the cybercriminals. "Most of the group's Phobos variants ar...

A deep dive into Phobos ransomware, recently deployed by 8Base group

Cisco Talos has recently observed an increase in activity conducted by 8Base, a ransomware group that uses a variant of the Phobos ransomware and other publicly available tools to facilitate their operations. Most of the groups Phobos variants are distributed by SmokeLoader, a backdoor trojan. Th...

In-Depth Analysis of Phobos Ransomware

Threat Level Attack Report For a detailed threat advisory, download the pdf file here Summary Phobos ransomware, active since 2018, primarily targets small to medium-sized businesses with lower ransom demands. It uses compromised RDP connections, is distributed via a Ransomware as a Service model...

8Base Ransomware Spikes in Activity, Threatens U.S. and Brazilian Businesses

A ransomware threat called 8Base that has been operating under the radar for over a year has been attributed to a "massive spike in activity" in May and June 2023. "The group utilizes encryption paired with 'name-and-shame' techniques to compel their victims to pay their ransoms," VMware Carbon...

A week in security (January 6 – 12)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we told readers how to check the safety of websites and their related files, explored the shady behavior taking place within the billion-dollar search industry, broke down the top six ways that hackers target retail businesses, and put a spotlight on the ransomware...

Threat spotlight: Phobos ransomware lives up to its name

Ransomware has struck dead on organizations since it became a mainstream tool in cybercriminals' belts years ago. From massive WannaCry outbreaks in 2017 to industry-focused attacks by Ryuk in 2019, ransomware's got its hooks in global businesses and shows no signs of stopping. That includes a...

A week in security (July 22 – 28)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we offered an extensive analysis into the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 investigation, updated users on the newest feature set to AdwCleaner 7.4.0 it now detects pre-installed software, and provided a deep dive into Phobos ransomware. We also broke down the latest...

A deep dive into Phobos ransomware

Phobos ransomware appeared at the beginning of 2019. It has been noted that this new strain of ransomware is strongly based on the previously known family: Dharma a.k.a. CrySis, and probably distributed by the same group as Dharma. While attribution is by no means conclusive, you can read more...