Ransomware: Double Extortion of Akira and Royal Victims
Victims of Royal and Akira ransomware attacks from October 2023 were the target of follow-up extortion attempts. After the first blackmail, alleged helpers came forward. For a large fee, they would ensure that the exfiltrated data would be permanently deleted. The Arctic Wolf Labs research team has investigated several cases where victims of Royal and Akira ransomware attacks were the target of follow-up extortion attempts starting in October 2023. In two of the cases examined, the threat actors claimed to want to support the victim organizations. They offered to look into the server infrastructure of the ransomware groups originally involved…