ransomware
U.S. seizes $2.8 million in crypto from Zeppelin ransomware operator
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the seizure of more than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency from suspected ransomware operator Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko. Antropenko, indicted in Texas for computer fraud and money laundering, was linked to Zeppelin ransomware, a now-defunct extortion operation that ran between 2019 and 2022. Apart from the digital asset seizure, the authorities […]
Colt Telecom attack claimed by WarLock ransomware, data up for sale
UK-based telecommunications company Colt Technology Services is dealing with a cyberattack that has caused a multi-day outage of some of the company’s operations, including hosting and porting services, Colt Online, and Voice API platforms. The British telecommunications and network services provider disclosed that the attack started on August 12 and the disruption continues as its IT staff […]
Crypto24 ransomware hits large orgs with custom EDR evasion tool
The Crypto24 ransomware group has been using custom utilities to evade security solutions on breached networks, exfiltrate data, and encrypt files. The threat group’s earliest activity was reported on GeekFeed forums in September 2024, though it never reached notable levels of notoriety. According to Trend Micro researchers tracking Crypto24’s operations, the hackers have hit several large organizations in the United […]
US govt seizes $1 million in crypto from BlackSuit ransomware gang
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) seized cryptocurrency and digital assets worth $1,091,453 at the time of confiscation, on January 9, 2024, from the BlackSuit ransomware gang. The authorities tracked the crypto as the cybercriminals moved it repeatedly across virtual currency exchange accounts, depositing and withdrawing it to obfuscate the trace. Eventually, the amount was […]
Manpower discloses data breach affecting nearly 145,000 people
Manpower, one of the world’s largest staffing companies, is notifying nearly 145,000 individuals that their information was stolen by attackers who breached the company’s systems in December 2024. Together with Experis and Talent Solutions, the company is part of ManpowerGroup, a multinational corporation with over 600,000 workers in more than 2,700 offices and serving over […]
MuddyWater’s DarkBit ransomware cracked for free data recovery
Cybersecurity firm Profero cracked the encryption of the DarkBit ransomware gang’s encryptors, allowing them to recover a victim’s files for free without paying a ransom. This occurred in 2023 during an incident response handled by Profero experts, who were brought in to investigate a ransomware attack on one of their clients, which had encrypted multiple […]
Royal and BlackSuit ransomware gangs hit over 450 US companies
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says the cybercrime gang behind the Royal and BlackSuit ransomware operations had breached hundreds of U.S. companies before being taken down last month. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), DHS’s main investigative arm, which took down the group’s infrastructure in cooperation with international law enforcement partners, added that the cybercriminals also collected over $370 […]
New EDR killer tool used by eight different ransomware groups
A new Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) killer that is considered to be the evolution of ‘EDRKillShifter,’ developed by RansomHub, has been observed in attacks by eight different ransomware gangs. Such tools help ransomware operators turn off security products on breached systems so they can deploy payloads, escalate privileges, attempt lateral movement, and ultimately encrypt devices on […]
SonicWall finds no SSLVPN zero-day, links ransomware attacks to 2024 flaw
SonicWall says that recent Akira ransomware attacks exploiting Gen 7 firewalls with SSLVPN enabled are exploiting an older vulnerability rather than a zero-day flaw. The company says that the attackers are targeting CVE-2024-40766, an unauthorized access flaw fixed in August 2024. “We now have high confidence that the recent SSLVPN activity is not connected to […]
Akira ransomware abuses CPU tuning tool to disable Microsoft Defender
Akira ransomware is abusing a legitimate Intel CPU tuning driver to turn off Microsoft Defender in attacks from security tools and EDRs running on target machines. The abused driver is ‘rwdrv.sys’ (used by ThrottleStop), which the threat actors register as a service to gain kernel-level access. This driver is likely used to load a second driver, […]