LockBit | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) on Tuesday confirmed that it obtained LockBit's source code as well as a wealth of intelligence pertaining to its activities and their affiliates as part of a dedicated task force called  Operation Cronos . "Some of the data on LockBit's systems belonged to victims who had paid a ransom to the threat actors, evidencing that even when a ransom is paid, it does not guarantee that data will be deleted, despite what the criminals have promised," the agency  said . It also announced the arrest of two LockBit actors in Poland and Ukraine. Over 200 cryptocurrency accounts linked to the group have been frozen. Indictments and sanctions have also been unsealed in the U.S. against two other Russian nationals who are alleged to have carried out LockBit attacks. Artur Sungatov and Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev (aka Bassterlord) have been accused of deploying LockBit against numerous victims throughout the U.S., including businesses nationw

Update: The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) has confirmed the takedown of LockBit infrastructure. Read here for more details . An international law enforcement operation has led to the seizure of multiple darknet domains operated by  LockBit , one of the most prolific ransomware groups, marking the latest in a long list of digital takedowns. While the full extent of the effort, codenamed  Operation Cronos , is presently unknown, visiting the group's .onion website displays a seizure banner containing the message "The site is now under the control of law enforcement." Authorities from 11 countries, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S., alongside Europol participated in the joint exercise. Malware research group VX-Underground, in a  message  posted on X (formerly Twitter), said the websites were taken down by exploiting a critical security flaw impacting PHP ( CVE-2023-3824 , CVSS score: 9.8

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

The ransomware industry surged in 2023 as it saw an alarming 55.5% increase in victims worldwide, reaching a staggering 4,368 cases.  Figure 1: Year over year victims per quarter The rollercoaster ride from explosive growth in 2021 to a momentary dip in 2022 was just a teaser—2023 roared back with the same fervor as 2021, propelling existing groups and ushering in a wave of formidable newcomers. Figure 2: 2020-2023 ransomware victim count LockBit 3.0 maintained its number one spot with 1047 victims achieved through the  Boeing  attack, the Royal Mail Attack, and more.  Alphv  and  Cl0p  achieved far less success, with 445 and 384 victims attributed to them, respectively, in 2023.  Figure 3: Top 3 active ransomware groups in 2023 These 3 groups were heavy contributors to the boom in ransomware attacks in 2023, but they were not the sole groups responsible. Many attacks came from emerging ransomware gangs such as  8Base , Rhysida, 3AM, Malaslocker,  BianLian , Play,  Akira , and o

The banking malware known as  Carbanak  has been observed being used in  ransomware attacks  with updated tactics. "The malware has adapted to incorporate attack vendors and techniques to diversify its effectiveness," cybersecurity firm NCC Group  said  in an analysis of ransomware attacks that took place in November 2023. "Carbanak returned last month through new distribution chains and has been distributed through compromised websites to impersonate various business-related software." Some of the impersonated tools include popular business-related software such as HubSpot, Veeam, and Xero. Carbanak , detected in the wild since at least 2014, is known for its data exfiltration and remote control features. Starting off as a banking malware, it has been put to use by the  FIN7 cybercrime syndicate . In the latest attack chain documented by NCC Group, the compromised websites are designed to host malicious installer files masquerading as legitimate utilities to

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on the inner workings of the ransomware operation led by Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, a Russian national who was  indicted by the U.S. government  earlier this year for his alleged role in launching thousands of attacks across the world. Matveev, who resides in Saint Petersburg and is known by the aliases Wazawaka, m1x, Boriselcin, Uhodiransomwar, Orange, and waza, is alleged to have played a crucial part in the development and deployment of LockBit, Babuk, and Hive ransomware variants since at least June 2020. "Wazawaka and his team members prominently exhibit an insatiable greed for ransom payments, demonstrating a significant disregard for ethical values in their cyber operations," Swiss cybersecurity firm PRODAFT  said  in a comprehensive analysis shared with The Hacker News. "Employing tactics that involve intimidation through threats to leak sensitive files, engaging in dishonest practices, and persisting in retaining fil

Multiple threat actors, including LockBit ransomware affiliates, are  actively exploiting  a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Citrix NetScaler application delivery control (ADC) and Gateway appliances to obtain initial access to target environments. The joint advisory comes from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Center (ASD's ACSC). "Citrix Bleed, known to be leveraged by LockBit 3.0 affiliates, allows threat actors to bypass password requirements and multifactor authentication (MFA), leading to successful session hijacking of legitimate user sessions on Citrix NetScaler web application delivery control (ADC) and Gateway appliances," the agencies  said . "Through the takeover of legitimate user sessions, malicious actors acquire elevated permissions to

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 are distributed by SmokeLoader, a backdoor trojan," security researcher Guilherme Venere said in an exhaustive  two-part   analysis  published Friday. "This commodity loader typically drops or downloads additional payloads when deployed. In 8Base campaigns, however, it has the ransomware component embedded in its encrypted payloads, which is then decrypted and loaded into the SmokeLoader process' memory." 8Base came into sharp focus in mid-2023, when a similar spike in activity was observed by the cybersecurity community. It's said to be active at least since March 2022. A  previous analysis  from VMware Carbon Black in June 2023 identified parallels between 8Base and Ranso

The leak of the  LockBit 3.0 ransomware  builder last year has led to threat actors abusing the tool to spawn new variants. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said it detected a ransomware intrusion that deployed a version of LockBit but with a markedly different ransom demand procedure. "The attacker behind this incident decided to use a different ransom note with a headline related to a previously unknown group, called NATIONAL HAZARD AGENCY," security researchers Eduardo Ovalle and Francesco Figurelli  said . The revamped ransom note directly specified the amount to be paid to obtain the decryption keys, and directed communications to a Tox service and email, unlike the LockBit group, which doesn't mention the amount and uses its own communication and negotiation platform. NATIONAL HAZARD AGENCY is far from the only cybercrime gang to use the leaked LockBit 3.0 builder. Some of the other threat actors known to leverage it include  Bl00dy and Buhti . Kaspersk

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday unveiled charges against a Russian national for his alleged involvement in deploying LockBit ransomware to targets in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Africa. Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov, 20, of Chechen Republic has been accused of perpetrating at least five attacks between August 2020 and March 2023. He was arrested in the state of Arizona last month. "Astamirov allegedly participated in a conspiracy with other members of the LockBit ransomware campaign to commit wire fraud and to intentionally damage protected computers and make ransom demands through the use and deployment of ransomware," the DoJ  said . Astamirov, as part of his LockBit-related activities, managed various email addresses, IP addresses, and other online accounts to deploy the ransomware and communicate with the victims. Law enforcement agencies said they were able to trace a chunk of an unnamed victim's ransom payment to a virtual currency address operated by Astam

The threat actors behind the  LockBit  ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme have extorted $91 million following hundreds of attacks against numerous U.S. organizations since 2020. That's according to a  joint bulletin  published by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and other partner authorities from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, and the U.K. "The LockBit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) attracts affiliates to use LockBit for conducting ransomware attacks, resulting in a large web of unconnected threat actors conducting wildly varying attacks," the agencies  said . LockBit, which first burst onto the scene in late 2019, has continued to be disruptive and prolific, targeting as many as 76 victims in May 2023 alone, per statistics shared by  Malwarebytes  last week. The Russia-linked cartel has claimed responsibil

The threat actors behind the nascent  Buhti  ransomware have eschewed their custom payload in favor of leaked LockBit and Babuk ransomware families to strike Windows and Linux systems. "While the group doesn't develop its own ransomware, it does utilize what appears to be one custom-developed tool, an information stealer designed to search for and archive specified file types," Symantec  said  in a report shared with The Hacker News. The cybersecurity firm is tracking the cybercrime group under the name  Blacktail . Buhti was first highlighted by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 in February 2023,  describing  it as a Golang ransomware targeting the Linux platform. Later that same month, Bitdefender revealed the use of a Windows variant that was deployed against Zoho ManageEngine products that were vulnerable to critical remote code execution flaws ( CVE-2022-47966 ). The operators have since been observed swiftly exploiting other severe bugs impacting IBM's Aspera Fasp

Iranian nation-state groups have now joined financially motivated actors in actively exploiting a critical flaw in PaperCut print management software, Microsoft disclosed over the weekend. The tech giant's threat intelligence team said it observed both Mango Sandstorm (Mercury) and Mint Sandstorm (Phosphorus) weaponizing CVE-2023-27350 in their operations to achieve initial access. "This activity shows Mint Sandstorm's continued ability to  rapidly incorporate [proof-of-concept] exploits  into their operations," Microsoft  said  in a series of tweets. On the other hand, CVE-2023-27350 exploitation activity associated with Mango Sandstorm is said to be on the lower end of the spectrum, with the state-sponsored group "using tools from prior intrusions to connect to their C2 infrastructure." It's worth noting that  Mango Sandstorm  is linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and  Mint Sandstorm  is associated with the Islamic