The staggering sum of US $75 million has reportedly been paid to a ransomware gang in what’s believed to be the biggest identified 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 document – $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 Might 2022, has focused a variety of industries together with healthcare, finance, authorities, and training. Most not too long ago it has been seen launching assaults in opposition to giant industrial, technological and telecoms corporations.
By way of its Dunghill information leak web site on the darkish net, Darkish Angels claims to be “a world workforce of technical specialists conducting analysis within the discipline of data safety” that’s “not taken with politics, and that’s the reason we don’t cooperate with governments and legislation enforcement businesses.”
The reality is, after all, that Darkish Angels’ approach of getting cash is thru extortion – threatening corporations that their information 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 information after which, most of the time, spend days and even weeks exfiltrating huge quantities of information.
Within the instances of bigger companies which were infiltrated by the group, as much as 100 TB of information could also be stolen in line with 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 methods, having encrypted the agency’s VMware ESXi digital machines and claimed to have stolen over 27 TB of company information.
Darkish Angels reportedly demanded a US $51 million ransom from Johnson Controls in alternate for a decryption software 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 value 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 offered with a requirement from cybercriminals.
Admittedly, it is most likely an excellent 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 it’s worthwhile to ask your self stay the identical.
Everyone knows that the extra companies conform to pay a ransom, the extra seemingly 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 similar time, your organization might really feel it has no selection however to make the arduous choice to pay. In any case, the choice might put the whole enterprise in danger – and put the livelihoods of your workers, companions, and maybe even purchasers in danger.
No matter your choice, I might say that it’s important to tell legislation 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 be certain that the safety drawback that allowed the attackers into your community within the first place now not exists. In the event you don’t discover out what went incorrect – and why – and repair it, then you may simply fall sufferer to additional ransomware assaults sooner or later.
Editor’s Be aware: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor writer articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially replicate these of Tripwire.