The staggering sum of US $75 million has reportedly been paid to a ransomware gang in what’s believed to be the biggest recognized ransom fee made by a cyber assault sufferer since data started.
Researchers at Zscaler declare in a brand new report that the record-breaking determine was paid by an undisclosed Fortune 50 firm to the Darkish Angels ransomware group.
The reported fee virtually doubles the earlier document – $40 million paid by insurance coverage big CNA Monetary in 2021 after being locked out of its community by attackers utilizing the Phoenix Locker ransomware.
Darkish Angels, which emerged in Might 2022, has focused a variety of industries together with healthcare, finance, authorities, and schooling. Most not too long ago it has been seen launching assaults in opposition to massive industrial, technological and telecoms corporations.
Via its Dunghill knowledge leak website on the darkish internet, Darkish Angels claims to be “a world group of technical specialists conducting analysis within the subject of data safety” that’s “not concerned with politics, and that’s the reason we don’t cooperate with governments and legislation enforcement companies.”
The reality is, in fact, that Darkish Angels’ means of making a living is thru extortion – threatening corporations that their knowledge shall be leaked to the world if a ransom isn’t paid.
Darkish Angels, having compromised an organization’s safety, resolve whether or not to encrypt a enterprise’s recordsdata after which, as a rule, spend days and even weeks exfiltrating huge quantities of information.
Within the circumstances of bigger companies which were infiltrated by the group, as much as 100 TB of information could also be stolen in response to Zscaler’s researchers.
In a high-profile incident reported by Bleeping Laptop in September 2023, Darkish Angels hit a multinational conglomerate, forcing it to close down its IT programs, having encrypted the agency’s VMware ESXi digital machines and claimed to have stolen over 27 TB of company knowledge.
Darkish Angels reportedly demanded a US $51 million ransom from Johnson Controls in alternate for a decryption software and to delete the recordsdata it had stolen. The corporate later reported in an SEC submitting that the expense of investigating and remediating the assault, in addition to losses brought on by enterprise disruption, had price it over US $27 million.
Confronted with the headline of an organization paying a record-breaking US $75 million ransom fee, many companies could be questioning how they might reply when offered with a requirement from cybercriminals.
Admittedly, it is most likely an incredible deal simpler for a enterprise to resolve whether or not it ought to cough up tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to a ransomware gang than ten thousand {dollars} – however the questions you might want to ask your self stay the identical.
Everyone knows that the extra companies conform to pay a ransom, the extra probably it’s that cybercriminals will launch related assaults in opposition to others sooner or later – in addition to, maybe, your organization once more.
On the identical time, your organization might really feel it has no alternative however to make the laborious resolution to pay. In spite of everything, the choice might put your complete enterprise in danger – and put the livelihoods of your employees, companions, and even perhaps shoppers in danger.
No matter your resolution, I’d say that it’s important to tell legislation enforcement companies of the incident and work with them to assist them examine who may be behind the assaults.
Most significantly, keep in mind that paying a ransom doesn’t be sure that the safety drawback that allowed the attackers into your community within the first place not exists. Should you don’t discover out what went mistaken – and why – and repair it, then you might simply fall sufferer to additional ransomware assaults sooner or later.
Editor’s Observe: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor writer articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially replicate these of Tripwire.
