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 cost 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 cost virtually doubles the earlier report – $40 million paid by insurance coverage large CNA Monetary in 2021 after being locked out of its community by attackers utilizing the Phoenix Locker ransomware.
Darkish Angels, which emerged in Could 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 firms.
Via its Dunghill knowledge leak website on the darkish net, Darkish Angels claims to be “a global crew of technical specialists conducting analysis within the discipline of data safety” that’s “not involved in politics, and that’s the reason we don’t cooperate with governments and regulation enforcement businesses.”
The reality is, after all, that Darkish Angels’ means of earning profits is thru extortion – threatening firms that their knowledge shall be leaked to the world if a ransom will not be paid.
Darkish Angels, having compromised an organization’s safety, determine whether or not to encrypt a enterprise’s information after which, most of the time, spend days and even weeks exfiltrating huge quantities of knowledge.
Within the circumstances of bigger companies which have been infiltrated by the group, as much as 100 TB of knowledge could also be stolen in accordance with 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 methods, 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 device and to delete the information it had stolen. The corporate later reported in an SEC submitting that the expense of investigating and remediating the assault, in addition to losses attributable to enterprise disruption, had price it over US $27 million.
Confronted with the headline of an organization paying a record-breaking US $75 million ransom cost, many companies could be questioning how they might reply when introduced with a requirement from cybercriminals.
Admittedly, it is in all probability an incredible deal simpler for a enterprise to determine 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 it’s essential ask your self stay the identical.
Everyone knows that the extra companies comply with pay a ransom, the extra doubtless 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 could really feel it has no selection however to make the exhausting determination to pay. In any case, the choice could put your complete enterprise in danger – and put the livelihoods of your employees, companions, and even perhaps shoppers in danger.
No matter your determination, I’d say that it’s important to tell regulation enforcement businesses of the incident and work with them to assist them examine who could be behind the assaults.
Most significantly, do not forget that paying a ransom doesn’t make 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 improper – and why – and repair it, then you may simply fall sufferer to additional ransomware assaults sooner or later.
Editor’s Notice: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor writer articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially mirror these of Tripwire.
