What’s the Medusa ransomware?
Medusa is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) platform that first got here to prominence in 2023. The ransomware impacts organisations operating Home windows, predominantly exploiting susceptible and unpatched programs and hijacking accounts by means of preliminary entry brokers.
Preliminary entry brokers?
Preliminary entry brokers (IABs) concentrate on gaining unauthorised entry to the networks of organisations, after which promote that entry to different cybercriminals – corresponding to ransomware gangs like Medusa.
So the ransomware attackers is probably not those who initially hacked you?
Right. IABs could also be expert at breaking right into a community, however not essentially be concerned with stealing your information and/or negotiating a ransom. IABs allow ransomware gangs to assault a number of targets concurrently, serving to them to scale back the general time it takes to deploy ransomware, improve the possibilities of success, and maximise their earnings.
And the assaults aren’t noticed?
Like some other malicious hackers, the Medusa attackers do their greatest to keep away from detection. Within the case of Medusa ransomware assaults, they seem to reap the benefits of the “residing off the land” approach, the place attackers use authentic instruments and assets already current on a sufferer’s community to hold out malicious actions. As a substitute of counting on exterior malware, this system mimics authentic exercise and helps the attackers to evade detection.
So Medusa offers a platform for others to hold out ransomware assaults?
Sure, their associates use the Medusa platform to launch the assaults, and when a ransom is acquired, it’s shared between the totally different events.
And I suppose what the ransomware does is the usual fare?
Copies of delicate recordsdata are exfiltrated by the attackers, and the variations left on the sufferer’s programs are encrypted. The extension .MEDUSA is appended to the top of the names of encrypted recordsdata.
The ransomware additionally makes efforts to make restoration harder after an assault, wiping a type of Microsoft Home windows information backups referred to as quantity shadow copies, and deleting recordsdata with backup packages corresponding to Home windows Backup.
As well as, digital disk onerous drives (VHDs) utilized by digital machines are deleted. A ransom be aware is left, demanding fee for a decryption of the encrypted recordsdata – with the risk that the stolen recordsdata will likely be revealed if a ransom isn’t paid by a deadline.
The place are the stolen recordsdata revealed?
Medusa, like many different ransomware gangs, operates a leak website on the darkish net. The so-called “Medusa weblog” publicises a listing of hacked organisations, alongside a countdown informing the victims of their fee deadline.
Along with the darkish net leak website, accessible through Tor, Medusa additionally publicises hacks and publishes stolen information on its public Telegram channel. Making it extra accessible than many different ransomware teams.
What varieties of organisation does Medusa goal?
Medusa targets all kinds of business sectors, however judging by these it has listed on its leak web site these sectors most affected embody excessive tech, manufacturing, and schooling. The most important proportion of Medusa’s targets look like situated in america, adopted by the UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Italy. It is noticeable that organisations primarily based in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan don’t seem within the record of victims.
Presumably the dearth of assaults on CIS nations is kind of intentional?
It is onerous to argue in any other case. That is small comfort, after all, for these organisations primarily based in nations that Medusa has no qualms about attacking.
What organisations have been hit by Medusa?
Previous victims have included Minneapolis Public Faculties (MPS) district, which didn’t pay a million-dollar ransom and noticed roughly 92 GB of its stolen information launched to the general public. It has additionally bragged about stealing the supply code of the Microsoft merchandise Bing Maps and Cortona previously. Different Medusa ransomware victims have included most cancers centres, and British excessive colleges.
And these ransomware victims have had their information leaked by Medusa?
Sure, and never simply on the group’s website on the darkish net. Medusa has its personal “media workforce” that publicises its leaks, posting on its public Telegram channel, and even going as far as to publish movies exhibiting proof of stolen information.
So how can my firm shield itself from Medusa?
The greatest recommendation is to comply with the identical suggestions on the best way to shield your organisation from different ransomware. These embody:
- making safe offsite backups.
- operating up-to-date safety options and guaranteeing that your computer systems are protected with the newest safety patches in opposition to vulnerabilities.
- utilizing hard-to-crack distinctive passwords to guard delicate information and accounts, in addition to enabling multi-factor authentication.
- encrypting delicate information wherever attainable.
- lowering the assault floor by disabling performance that your organization doesn’t want.
- educating and informing workers concerning the dangers and strategies utilized by cybercriminals to launch assaults and steal information.
Editor’s Observe: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor writer articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially replicate these of Tripwire.
