Ransomware Group FIN12 Aggressively Going After Healthcare Targets

An "aggressive" financially motivated threat actor has been identified as linked to a string of RYUK ransomware attacks since October 2018, while maintaining close partnerships with TrickBot-affiliated threat actors and using a publicly available arsenal of tools such as Cobalt Strike Beacon...

The Top Ransomware Threats Aren’t Who You Think

While there seem to be legions of ransomware gangs, it turns out that just a handful of ransomware-as-a-service RaaS actors dominate the entire ecosystem of encryption-attack threats. In fact, just three ransomware families, none of them household names, make up 64 percent of all threats detected...

Microsoft MSHTML Flaw Exploited by Ryuk Ransomware Gang

Criminals behind the Ryuk ransomware were early exploiters of the Windows MSHTML flaw, actively leveraging the bug in campaigns ahead of a patch released by Microsoft this week. Collaborative research by Microsoft and RiskIQ revealed campaigns by Ryuk threat actors early on that exploited the fla...

Chaos Malware: Ransomware and Wiper

An under-construction malware called Chaos has been spotted, which is being advertised on an underground forum as being available for testing. While it calls itself ransomware, an analysis revealed that it’s actually more of a wiper. According to Trend Micro researcher Monte de Jesus, Chaos has...

Ransomware Volumes Hit Record Highs as 2021 Wears On

Ransomware has seen a significant uptick so far in 2021, with global attack volume increasing by 151 percent for the first six months of the year as compared with the year-ago half. Meanwhile, the FBI has warned that there are now 100 different strains circulating around the world. From a...

City of Liège hit by ransomware, Ryuk suspected

Liège, the third largest city in Belgium, and a major educational hub, has been hit by a ransomware attack, disrupting its IT services and network. The municipality of Lieges official website, which was translated from the French. According to its official website pictures above: The City of Lièg...

Ransomware Attackers Partnering With Cybercrime Groups to Hack High-Profile Targets

As ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure skyrocket, new research shows that threat actors behind such disruptions are increasingly shifting from using email messages as an intrusion route to purchasing access from cybercriminal enterprises that have already infiltrated major targets...

Ryuk Ransomware Attack Sprung by Frugal Student

A European biomolecular research institute involved in COVID-19 research lost a week’s worth of research data, all thanks to a Ryuk ransomware attack traced back to a student trying to save money by buying unlicensed software. Security researchers at Sophos described the attack in a report...

Hackers Using a Windows OS Feature to Evade Firewall and Gain Persistence

A novel technique adopted by attackers finds ways to use Microsoft's Background Intelligent Transfer Service BITS so as to deploy malicious payloads on Windows machines stealthily. In 2020, hospitals, retirement communities, and medical centers bore the brunt of an ever-shifting phishing campaign...

The Malwarebytes 2021 State of Malware report: Lock and Code S02E04

This week on Lock and Code, we discuss the top security headlines generated right here on Labs. In addition, we tune in to a special presentation from Adam Kujawa about the 2021 State of Malware report, which analyzed the top cybercrime goals of 2020 amidst the global pandemic. If you just pay...

Ransomware Attack Strikes Spain’s Employment Agency

The Spanish State Employment Service SEPE in Spain has been hit by a cyberattack, suspending its communications systems across hundreds of offices and delaying thousands of appointments. SEPE is an “autonomous body” in Spain that manages and controls unemployment benefits. The cyberattack hit...

A week in security (March 1 – 7)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, our podcast featured Eva Galperin who talked to us about defending online anonymity and speech. We wrote about how Ryuk ransomware has developed a worm-like capability, how Exchange servers are attacked by Hafnium zero-days, 21 million free VPN users’ data was...

Ryuk ransomware develops worm-like capability

The French governments computer emergency readiness team, thats part of the National Cybersecurity Agency of France, or ANSSI, has discovered a Ryuk variant that has worm-like capabilities during an incident response. For those unacquainted with Ryuk, it is a type of ransomware that is used in...

Ryuk Ransomware: Now with Worming Self-Propagation

A new version of the Ryuk ransomware is capable of worm-like self-propagation within a local network, researchers have found. The variant first emerged in Windows-focused campaigns earlier in 2021, according to the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems ANSSI. The agency...

Malware Gangs Partner Up in Double-Punch Security Threat

Cybergangs are joining forces under the guise of affiliate groups and “as-a-service” models, warns Maya Horowitz, the director of threat intelligence research with Check Point Research. She said the trend is driving a new and thriving cybercriminal underground economy. Several malware gangs have...

Ransomware Profitability

Analyzing cryptocurrency data, a research group has estimated a lower-bound on 2020 ransomware revenue: $350 million, four times more than in 2019. Based on the companys data, among last years top earners, there were groups like Ryuk, Maze now-defunct, Doppelpaymer, Netwalker disrupted by...

European Authorities Disrupt Emotet — World's Most Dangerous Malware

Law enforcement agencies from as many as eight countries dismantled the infrastructure of Emotet, a notorious email-based Windows malware behind several botnet-driven spam campaigns and ransomware attacks over the past decade. The coordinated takedown of the botnet on Tuesday — dubbed "Operation...

Arrest, Seizures Tied to Netwalker Ransomware

U.S. and Bulgarian authorities this week seized the darkweb site used by the NetWalker ransomware cybercrime group to publish data stolen from its victims. In connection with the seizure, a Canadian national suspected of extorting more than $27 million through the spreading of NetWalker was charg...

Emotet Takedown Disrupts Vast Criminal Infrastructure; NetWalker Site Offline

UPDATE The virulent malware known as Emotet – one of the most prolific malware strains globally – has been dealt a blow thanks to a takedown by an international law-enforcement consortium. Meanwhile, the NetWalker ransomware has also been subjected to partial disruption, according to the U.S...

International Action Targets Emotet Crimeware

Authorities across Europe on Tuesday said theyd seized control over Emotet, a prolific malware strain and cybercrime-as-service operation. Investigators say the action could help quarantine more than a million Microsoft Windows systems currently compromised with malware tied to Emotet infections...