However, in a separate incident taking place on January 16, 2021, the same 'babam' IAB tried to sell access to mining technology firm Gyrodata. (This group has reportedly closed down and a tool has been made available to generate decryption keys.)ĭarkSide is infamous for an attack on Colonial Pipeline that caused fuel panic-buying in the United States. Three weeks later, the company appeared on the Avaddon domain. In an attack conducted by Avaddon, access to a UAE steel product supplier was found to be up for sale on a forum in a post dated March 8, 2021. 'Bangkok Airways did not disclose any investigation details, but based on the timeline, it is highly possible that the attack was performed using the bought access,' the researchers noted. Two days later, Bangkok Airways appeared on the LockBit leak site. While it isn't clear exactly who purchased Bangkok Airways access, on Aug- not yet a month after access was offered in underground forums - the airline became infected by ransomware.

First up is LockBit, of which an attack began against Bangkok Airways due to An圜onnect VPN access offered by a threat actor called 'babam.' KELA conducted an examination of past security incidents involving these ransomware groups. In the cases identified by the cybersecurity firm, once access has been purchased, it takes up to a month for a ransomware attack to take place - and potentially for the victim to be subsequently named and shamed on a leak site.Īt the very least, five known Russian-speaking ransomware operators are using IABs: LockBit, Avaddon, DarkSide, Conti, and BlackByte. On average, IABs sell initial access for $4600, and sales take between one and three days to finalize. As a result, 'sub' services have emerged that assist ransomware developers in the deployment of their illicit creations - ranging from language services to handle ransom payment negotiation to Initial Access Brokers (IABs) who offer the covert access to a network required in the first stage of a ransomware attack.Īs noted in new research conducted by KELA, the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) economy relies on IABs to reduce the need for extended reconnaissance or the time to find a method for entry. Time is money in the corporate world, and ransomware has exploded in recent years to become an almost separate cybercriminal business of its own. Now, while individuals may still encounter ransomware - especially when antivirus programs are not in use - companies are the big game that criminals hunt. We review Apple's M1 Ultra-powered Mac StudioĬan digital dollars be as anonymous as cash?Ī roundup of the best software and apps for Windows and Mac computers, as well as iOS and Android devices, to keep yourself safe from malware and viruses. Ukrainian developers share stories from the war zone When the boss gets angry at employees' Teams habits

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