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ALPHV Security Incident

late 2021 1461 days ago Resolved

Incident Overview

Situation Description

ALPHV, a new ransomware operation written in Rust, emerged in late 2021 and operates as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) program utilizing double-extortion tactics.

Event Types

Ransomware Malware / Destructive Attack

Industry Sector

Other

Geographic Scope

Global

Impact Analysis

Event Types (2 identified)

Ransomware Malware / Destructive Attack

Financial Impact

$0 USD

Records Affected

Data Types Compromised

PII (Personally Identifiable Information) Intellectual Property Credentials Operational / System Data

Primary Impacts

Financial Loss Data Exposure Operational Disruption Reputational Damage

Key Decisions Made

ALPHV operators advertised the new ALPHV-ng (New Generation) RaaS partner program.; ALPHV affiliates were prohibited from targeting countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Turkey.; Affiliates not performing any activity for two weeks would have their accounts frozen and subsequently deleted.

Technical Analysis

Attack Method

Unknown

Threat Actor Attribution

ALPHV BlackCat

Additional Information

ALPHV: The First Rust-Based Ransomware ReliaQuest Threat Research Team 6 May 2022 Emerging Threats Threat Intelligence Threat Research In late 2021, we observed a new ransomware operation named ALPHV (also known as BlackCat) emerge. The group operates as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) program and much like other ransomware groups active today, it practices the double-extortion method, threatening to publish victims data on its data-leak website, in addition to encrypting their systems. What makes ALPHV unique is that the ransomware was written in the RUST programming language, making it the first ransomware group to successfully develop and use a RUST-based ransomware. Since ALPHV was released, the group has posted close to 100 victims to its data-leak site, and it remains highly active at the time of writing. Over the past month, ReliaQuest has been closely monitoring ALPHV, due to the uniqueness of the group and its recent burst in activity, posting more than 30 organizations to its data-leak site over the past month. In this blog, we will cover the ALPHV affiliate program, explain how ALPHV operates, and the history of the group. ReliaQuest Portal Profile for ALPHV THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM One of the first public appearances of ALPHV occurred on the RAMP cybercriminal forum on 09 Dec 2021, where a representative of the group promoted the ALPHV RaaS program and attempted to recruit affiliates. In this post, ALPHV operators advertised the new ALPHV-ng (New Generation) RaaS partner program, which they described as the next generation of ransomware. The ransomware had been written from scratch and have many features, including: Four encryption modes : full, fast, DotPattern, and Auto. It uses the two encryption algorithms ChaCha20 and AES. Infrastructure fragmented with nodes that are interconnected and located behind NAT + FW. The infrastructure is set up so that attackers will not reveal the real IP addresses of their servers when receiving cmdshells. Functional...

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Quick Facts

Company:: ALPHV
Date:: late 2021
Status:: Resolved
Decision Maker:: nan
Position:: nan
Published:: 6/05/2022

Source Information

Original Query

FBI public statements on ALPHV/Blackcat decryption tool effectiveness for victims

View Original Source

Timeline

Information Published

6/05/2022

Incident Occurred

late 2021 (1461 days ago)

Status: Resolved

Estimated resolution based on age

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