Researchers at KELA warn that ransomware gangs are more and more refraining from mentioning their victims’ names after the preliminary assault, giving the victims an opportunity to pay up earlier than the assault is publicized. This places an extra layer of stress on the sufferer to pay rapidly, as a result of it might permit them to keep away from the reputational harm that’s among the many largest threats a sufferer faces. If the sufferer refuses to pay, the attackers can then publish their identify and threaten to launch the stolen information.
“KELA noticed just a few ransomware teams utilizing comparatively new intimidating strategies which embody publishing a sufferer with out mentioning the corporate’s identify,” the researchers write. “For instance, Midas revealed just a few victims claiming ‘a brand new firm’ as their sufferer on their information leak website. If the sufferer didn’t pay, Midas would edit the submit and add the sufferer’s identify. Lorenz ransomware gang adopted the identical follow and revealed a ‘new goal firm’ on their ransomware weblog. Moreover, Everest information leak website operators used the identical technique: a Canada-based provider was listed with a risk to leak 96 gigabytes of the corporate’s information, together with over 10,500 private information of Canadian residents.”
The prolific ransomware gang Conti has adopted an analogous tactic, utilizing hidden weblog posts to threaten the victims.
“Compared to Everest and Lorenz who preserve ambiguity relating to victims’ names, Conti’s leaked chats confirmed that the gang ready hidden weblog posts about victims that may be accessed solely through a particular URL,” KELA says. “The actors share this hidden weblog submit with a sufferer to intimidate them by exhibiting how simply the sufferer’s information will be accessed. If a sufferer agrees to pay, the submit is rarely launched; if the negotiation fails, the weblog turns into publicly accessible, and the sufferer’s identify is disclosed.”
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