Threat Assessment: BlackCat Ransomware
Summary: BlackCat (aka ALPHV) is a ransomware family that surfaced in mid-November 2021, operating a ransomware-as-a-service model in which affiliates keep 80-90% of ransom payments and the remainder goes to the BlackCat author. Written in Rust and used against both Windows and Linux systems, it had listed more than a dozen victims on its leak site in a little over a month, with U.S. organizations the largest share and victims spanning sectors including construction and engineering, retail, transportation, insurance, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals.
What you should know: Unit 42 observed BlackCat affiliates demanding up to $14 million, discounted to $9 million if paid before a set deadline, and the group combines data theft, leak-site threats and DDoS into triple extortion. A family publicly known only since November 2021 had the seventh-largest victim count among groups Unit 42 tracks by December 2021, ahead of established operations.
Read the original at Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks ↗
- Topics
- Ransomware
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