Tag Archives: DarkSide

Who Wrote the ALPHV/BlackCat Ransomware Strain?

January 28, 2022

In December 2021, researchers discovered a new ransomware-as-a-service named ALPHV (a.k.a. “BlackCat”), considered to be the first professional cybercrime group to create and use a ransomware strain in the Rust programming language. In this post, we’ll explore some of the clues left behind by the developer who was reputedly hired to code the ransomware variant.

At Request of U.S., Russia Rounds Up 14 REvil Ransomware Affiliates

January 14, 2022

The Russian government said today it arrested 14 people accused of working for “REvil,” a particularly aggressive ransomware group that has extorted hundreds of millions of dollars from victim organizations. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said the actions were taken in response to a request from U.S. officials, but many experts believe the crackdown is part of an effort to reduce tensions over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to station 100,000 troops along the nation’s border with Ukraine.

Who is the Network Access Broker ‘Wazawaka?’

January 12, 2022

In a great many ransomware attacks, the criminals who pillage the victim’s network are not the same crooks who gained the initial access to the victim organization. More commonly, the infected PC or stolen VPN credentials the gang used to break in were purchased from a cybercriminal middleman known as an initial access broker. This post examines some of the clues left behind by Wazawaka, the handle chosen by a major access broker in the Russian-speaking cybercrime scene.

Ukrainian Police Nab Six Tied to CLOP Ransomware

June 16, 2021

Authorities in Ukraine this week charged six people alleged to have been part of the CLOP ransomware group, a cybercriminal gang said to have extorted more than half a billion dollars from victims. Some of CLOP’s victims this year alone include Stanford University Medical School, the University of California, and University of Maryland.

How Does One Get Hired by a Top Cybercrime Gang?

June 15, 2021

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last week announced the arrest of a 55-year-old Latvian woman who’s alleged to have worked as a programmer for Trickbot, a malware-as-a-service platform responsible for infecting millions of computers and seeding many of those systems with ransomware.

Just how did a self-employed web site designer and mother of two come to work for one of the world’s most rapacious cybercriminal groups and then leave such an obvious trail of clues indicating her involvement with the gang? This post explores answers to those questions, as well as some of the ways Trickbot and other organized cybercrime gangs gradually recruit, groom and trust new programmers.