All news with #ransomware gang tag

🕸 The nascent Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters (SLH) collective — a merging of Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$, and ShinyHunters — has repeatedly recreated its Telegram presence, cycling channels at least 16 times since August 8, 2025. The group markets an extortion-as-a-service offering to affiliates, targets organizations including those using Salesforce, and has teased a custom ransomware family called Sh1nySp1d3r. Trustwave SpiderLabs assesses SLH as blending financially motivated crime with attention-seeking hacktivism and sophisticated brand management.

🛡️DragonForce, a ransomware operation built from leaked Conti source code, has restructured into a self-styled cartel that recruits affiliates and encourages branded variants. Researchers at Acronis report it retains Conti’s ChaCha20/RSA encryption, SMB-based network spreading, and multiple encryption modes while employing a hidden configuration system. Operators have pursued aggressive tactics — including defacing rival leak sites and aligning with access brokers like Scattered Spider — and have threatened victims with decryptor deletion and data leaks.

🔒 Three cybersecurity professionals have been indicted for allegedly operating an ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware affiliate network that attacked at least five U.S. companies between May and November 2023. Prosecutors named former Sygnia incident response manager Ryan Clifford Goldberg and negotiator Kevin Tyler Martin of DigitalMint, accusing them of exfiltrating data, encrypting systems, and demanding cryptocurrency extortion payments. An FBI affidavit describes encrypted dark‑web negotiations, multi‑hop transfers using privacy coins such as Monero, and meticulous spreadsheets that tracked ransoms, receipts, and wallet addresses. Charges include conspiracy to extort and intentional damage to protected computers, with potential forfeiture of crypto assets.

🔒 Federal prosecutors have indicted three U.S. nationals accused of using BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware to breach five companies between May and November 2023 and extort payments. The defendants—Ryan Clifford Goldberg, Kevin Tyler Martin, and an unnamed co‑conspirator—allegedly targeted firms in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, clinical care, engineering, and drone manufacturing. Two were employed by cybersecurity firms at the time; both employers say they cooperated with investigators.

🔒 A Ukrainian national extradited from Ireland has appeared in a US court, accused of conspiring to deploy Conti ransomware and manage stolen data and ransom notes. Authorities allege Oleksii Lytvynenko participated in attacks between 2020 and July 2022 that resulted in more than $500,000 in cryptocurrency extorted from victims in the Tennessee district and the publication of additional stolen data. He faces computer fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges and could receive up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

🔒 AdaptixC2, an open-source command-and-control framework, has been adopted by multiple threat actors, including groups tied to Russian ransomware operations, prompting warnings about its dual-use nature. The tool offers encrypted communications, credential and screenshot managers, remote terminal capabilities, a Golang server, and a cross-platform C++ QT GUI client. Security firms Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 and Silent Push have analyzed its modular capabilities and traced marketing activity to a developer using the handle RalfHacker. Observed abuse includes fake Microsoft Teams help-desk scams and an AI-generated PowerShell loader used to deliver post-exploitation payloads.

⚠️ Silent Push reports a surge in malicious use of AdaptixC2, an open-source adversarial emulation framework that researchers say is now being delivered by the CountLoader malware as part of active ransomware operations. Deployments accelerated after new detection signatures were released, and public incident reports show increased sightings across multiple intrusions. Analysts flagged the developer alias RalfHacker and issued indicators covering Golang C2 traffic and unknown C++/QT executables.

🔍 Security researchers at Varonis identified a modular remote access trojan named Atroposia, first seen on October 15 and promoted on underground forums. The toolkit includes encrypted C2 channels, hidden remote desktop takeover (HRDP Connect), credential and cryptocurrency wallet theft, DNS hijacking, vulnerability scanning and robust persistence. It is offered via subscription tiers and can be combined with services like SpamGPT and MatrixPDF to automate phishing and delivery. Recommended defenses include phishing reduction, timely patching, MFA enforcement and monitoring for post-compromise activity.

🔒 Cisco Talos reports that Qilin ransomware sustained a surge through the second half of 2025, publishing more than 40 victim listings per month on its leak site and peaking at roughly 100 postings in June and August. The group uses a double-extortion model, encrypting systems and threatening to publish stolen data if ransoms are not paid. Operating as a RaaS, Qilin and its affiliates have heavily targeted manufacturing, professional/scientific services and wholesale trade. Investigators observed use of Cyberduck, standard Windows utilities for file viewing, and dual encryptors that spread laterally via PsExec and encrypt multiple network shares.

🔒 Europol, together with police in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Austria, dismantled a cybercrime-as-a-service network during coordinated raids on October 10. Seven suspects were arrested and authorities seized five servers, some 40,000 active SIM cards, luxury vehicles, bank accounts and crypto wallets. Investigators say the operation created roughly 49 million fake accounts across about 80 countries and used those identities to swindle millions of euros.

🔒 Envoy Air confirmed that data was compromised from its Oracle E-Business Suite application after the Clop extortion gang listed American Airlines on its leak site. The carrier said it immediately launched an investigation, contacted law enforcement, and determined that no sensitive or customer data were affected, though limited business information and commercial contact details may have been exposed. The incident is tied to an August campaign by Clop, which exploited an E-Business Suite zero‑day (CVE‑2025‑61882) and is now publishing claimed stolen files.

🔒 Police seized several domains tied to the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters extortion network, but one dark‑web mirror remained briefly accessible and was used to publish alleged data on October 10. The site listed victims including Qantas, Vietnam Airlines, Albertsons, GAP, Fujifilm, and Engie Resources, with claimed volumes from millions to hundreds of thousands of records. Authorities caution that domain seizures are tactical wins: actors often resurrect forums from backups or migrate to platforms such as Telegram, and the group has even promised a 2026 return with a subscription-based extortion-as-a-service model.

🔒 Harvard University is investigating a data breach after the Clop ransomware gang listed the school on its data leak site and attributed the incident to a recently disclosed Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day (CVE-2025-61882). A Harvard IT spokesperson said the issue affected a limited number of parties within a small administrative unit and that a patch from Oracle was applied upon receipt. The university reports no evidence of broader compromise while it continues monitoring.

🔒 Threat actors are abusing Velociraptor, an open-source DFIR tool, to support ransomware operations attributed to Storm-2603. Attackers exploited on-premises SharePoint ToolShell flaws to deploy an outdated Velociraptor build (0.73.4.0) vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264, enabling privilege escalation and remote command execution. After lateral movement and creation of domain admin accounts, the group tampered with GPOs, disabled real‑time protection, and staged exfiltration before deploying Warlock, LockBit, and Babuk. Vendors caution that legitimate collection and orchestration capabilities can be repurposed by adversaries.

🔒 Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, with core actors such as Bling Libra, claim responsibility for large-scale theft of Salesforce customer data and launched a public data leak site in early October 2025. The group operates an extortion-as-a-service model, recruiting affiliates to send targeted executive extortion messages and taking revenue shares from payments. Recent activity included a Clearnet domain seizure by law enforcement and threatening deadlines for victim disclosures. Retail and hospitality organizations face heightened risks of identity theft, account takeover, returns and loyalty fraud; Unit 42 recommends secrets scanning, zero trust controls, least privilege and participation in industry ISACs.

🔒 The FBI, US Department of Justice and French authorities seized the BreachForums domain and parts of its backend on Oct. 9, disrupting infrastructure tied to an alliance of threat actors including ShinyHunters, Scattered Spider and LAPSUS$. The action followed threats to publish alleged Salesforce customer data unless a ransom was paid by Oct. 10. Although the primary forum domain now displays a takedown notice, a separate leak site remains active and the extortion campaign appears to be continuing. Experts advise organizations to audit Salesforce configurations, enable OAuth app governance, and enforce token and session hygiene immediately.

🚨 Law enforcement in the United States and France have seized domains tied to the BreachForums hacking forum, and the seized site now displays an official takedown banner pointing victims to an IC3 subdomain. Observers caution the action may be largely symbolic because a dark‑web instance remains active and no public arrests of administrators were confirmed. A collective calling itself Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters says it will still release one billion records allegedly taken from Salesforce customers on 10 October 2025, while Salesforce has reportedly told clients it will not pay a ransom.

🔒 Three major ransomware groups — LockBit, Qilin, and DragonForce — have announced a strategic alliance aimed at sharing techniques, infrastructure, affiliates, and operational resources to amplify extortion campaigns worldwide. The announcement follows LockBit's resurgence and the unveiling of LockBit 5.0, which is advertised to target Windows, Linux, and ESXi systems. Security firms warn the partnership could rebuild affiliate trust, increase attacks on critical infrastructure and diversify threats across multiple industry sectors.

🔓 A cybercrime collective known as ShinyHunters has launched a public extortion blog threatening to publish data stolen from dozens of major companies if ransoms are not paid. The group claims to have harvested Salesforce customer records via a May voice-phishing campaign, and also says it exfiltrated terabytes of files from a Red Hat GitLab server and Discord user data tied to a third-party provider. Security firms and affected vendors including Salesforce, Red Hat and Discord are investigating, while Google and other investigators link the activity to several related UNC clusters and warn of additional token thefts tied to Salesloft. Victim shaming, published exploit scripts for an Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day, and malware-laced threats have amplified the incident’s severity.

📧 An individual or group claiming to work with the Clop ransomware gang has been sending extortion emails to executives at multiple organizations since September 29, according to Google. Researchers at Mandiant and the Google Threat Intelligence Group are investigating and report a high-volume campaign launched from hundreds of compromised accounts, with at least one account previously linked to FIN11. The messages include contact information that matches addresses on the Clop data leak site, suggesting the actor may be leveraging Clop's brand; however, investigators emphasize this does not prove direct Clop involvement and advise targeted organizations to search for indicators of compromise.