The experts at Malwarebytes are constantly monitoring developments in ransomware attacks. Following the police and authorities' actions against LockBit and ALPHV, successors are already closing the gaps.
In April 2024, the ThreatDown Threat Intelligence team powered by Malwarebytes detected a total of 373 ransomware attacks, up from 389 attacks in March. Most of the attacks in April targeted the services (18 percent), manufacturing (14 percent) and construction (8 percent) industries.
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LockBit and ALPHV: Law enforcement is having an impact
🔎 The new ranking in April 2024 shows that no ransomware group dominates anymore, as was previously the case with LockBit (Image: Malwarebytes).
Malwarebytes has seen success in law enforcement efforts against the LockBit and ALPHV ransomware groups. In April, LockBit, long one of the most active ransomware groups by far, reported only 28 victims on its leak page on the dark web - the lowest number of known ransomware attacks in its entire history. Even more significant is the case with ALPHV: The group reported no more victims in April. This seems to confirm the group's dissolution.
Although LockBit is still active, the ransomware group is not what it once was, according to Malwarebytes. The number of attacks is decreasing. In early May, law enforcement authorities also revealed the identity of the suspected LockBit leader, Dmitry Khoroshev, also known as LockBitSupp. A reward of up to ten million US dollars has now been offered for information leading to his arrest.
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Currently leading ransomware groups
Malwarebytes attributes the majority of ransomware attacks in April to the PLAY group. The group reported 31 victims on its leak page on the dark web. In addition, other groups such as Medusa (with 23 known attacks) and Hunters International (with 29 known attacks) have also moved up the rankings since the collapse of LockBit and ALPHV. This represents a shift in the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) landscape. What is most striking about April 2024, however, is that for the first time in years, no single group dominates the rankings.
The ransomware group RansomHub is also coming to the fore: firstly, with 26 known attacks, and secondly, with the fact that the group began publishing stolen data from Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, in April.
New ransomware groups: dAn0n and DarkVault
New to the ransomware landscape in April was the group dAn0n, which published eight victims on its leak page. Also new is the group DarkVault, which published the data of 19 victims on its leak page in April. What is interesting about this group is that it has a website design similar to LockBit and uses the ransomware LockBit Black - and has also started rumors about a renaming of LockBit. According to Malwarebytes, however, you should always keep in mind that numerous groups imitate the LockBit leak website and use LockBit's ransomware toolkit.
Via Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes protects home users and businesses from dangerous threats, ransomware and exploits that are undetected by antivirus programs. Malwarebytes completely replaces other antivirus solutions in order to avert modern cybersecurity threats for private users and companies. More than 60.000 companies and millions of users trust Malwarebyte's innovative machine learning solutions and its security researchers to avert emerging threats and eliminate malware that antiquated security solutions fail to detect. You can find more information at www.malwarebytes.com.
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