The staggering sum of US $75 million has reportedly been paid to a ransomware gang in what’s believed to be the most important recognized ransom fee made by a cyber assault sufferer since information 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 file – $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 training. Most lately it has been seen launching assaults in opposition to giant industrial, technological and telecoms firms.
Via its Dunghill knowledge leak website on the darkish net, Darkish Angels claims to be “a world group of technical specialists conducting analysis within the discipline of data safety” that’s “not fascinated 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’ method of earning profits is thru extortion – threatening firms that their knowledge might 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 knowledge.
Within the circumstances of bigger companies which were infiltrated by the group, as much as 100 TB of knowledge could also be stolen in response to Zscaler’s researchers.
In a high-profile incident reported by Bleeping Pc 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 trade 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 value it over US $27 million.
Confronted with the headline of an organization paying a record-breaking US $75 million ransom fee, many companies might be questioning how they might reply when introduced with a requirement from cybercriminals.
Admittedly, it is most likely a fantastic deal simpler for a enterprise to resolve whether or not it ought to cough up tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to a ransomware gang than ten thousand {dollars} – however the questions you must ask your self stay the identical.
Everyone knows that the extra companies comply with pay a ransom, the extra seemingly it’s that cybercriminals will launch comparable 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 selection however to make the arduous determination to pay. In any case, the choice might put the complete enterprise in danger – and put the livelihoods of your employees, companions, and maybe even shoppers in danger.
No matter your determination, I’d say that it’s important to tell legislation enforcement companies of the incident and work with them to assist them examine who is likely to be behind the assaults.
Most significantly, do not forget that paying a ransom doesn’t be certain that the safety drawback that allowed the attackers into your community within the first place not exists. In case you don’t discover out what went improper – and why – and repair it, then you can simply fall sufferer to additional ransomware assaults sooner or later.
Editor’s Word: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor creator articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially replicate these of Tripwire.
