Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

ALPHV Ransomware Gang Creates Searchable Database With Victim Data

The cybercriminals behind the ALPHV ransomware have created a searchable database where employees and customers of their victims can search for their data.

The cybercriminals behind the ALPHV ransomware have created a searchable database where employees and customers of their victims can search for their data.

Also known as BlackCat and Noberus, ALPHV emerged in November 2021 as the first ransomware family coded using the Rust programming language. To date, the ALPHV cybergang has compromised more than 100 organizations.

Likely tied to the cybercrime group behind the Darkside/Blackmatter ransomware, ALPHV operates under the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model, with their affiliates compromising organizations and stealing valuable information.

In their attempt to pressure victims into paying the ransom, the group engages in a “quadruple extortion” practice where they encrypt victims’ data, steal it, launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against victims’ public-facing assets, and harass the victims’ customers, partners, and employees.

In June, the cybergang was seen launching a dedicated leak site for one of their victims, where the data stolen from the organization could be accessed by employees and customers. The personally identifiable information (PII) of more than 1,500 individuals was allegedly stolen from that victim.

More recently, the group introduced a searchable database storing data stolen from victims and containing more than 100,000 documents, cybersecurity firm Resecurity reports.

In a July 10 dark web forum post, the ALPHV cybergang announced that the database contains “documents (IDs, DL, SSN), access credentials, passwords, confidential information by company name,” and other information that employees and customers can search for.

“Information imported into the system has been acquired by our team from the real victims’ networks. The search can be performed by name of the file/folders, but also content (of the file), including images. The tool will find text recognized on the image, including in the body of PDF document,” the post reads.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Resecurity also noticed that the ransomware gang has increased its ransom demands to $2-$2.5 million, with victims typically asked to make the payment within a week.

The increase in ransom demands, however, is not surprising. According to Resecurity, the average ransom payment reached $570,000 in the first half of 2021 and almost doubled by 2022. Despite guidance not to pay, roughly half of the victims do pay to recover their data.

Related: FBI Shares Information on BlackCat Ransomware Attacks

Related: BlackCat Ransomware Targets Industrial Companies

Related: 4-Hour Time-to-Ransom Seen in Quantum Attack as Accelerated Ransomware Increasingly Common

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Ransomware

A SaaS ransomware attack against a company’s Sharepoint Online was done without using a compromised endpoint.

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.