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 working Home windows, predominantly exploiting weak and unpatched methods and hijacking accounts by way 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 – comparable 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 involved in stealing your knowledge 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 probabilities of success, and maximise their income.
And the assaults aren’t noticed?
Like every other malicious hackers, the Medusa attackers do their finest to keep away from detection. Within the case of Medusa ransomware assaults, they seem to make the most of the “residing off the land” approach, the place attackers use professional instruments and sources already current on a sufferer’s community to hold out malicious actions. As a substitute of counting on exterior malware, this method mimics professional exercise and helps the attackers to evade detection.
So Medusa supplies 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 obtained, it’s shared between the completely different events.
And I assume 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 methods are encrypted. The extension .MEDUSA is appended to the tip of the names of encrypted recordsdata.
The ransomware additionally makes efforts to make restoration tougher after an assault, wiping a type of Microsoft Home windows knowledge backups known as quantity shadow copies, and deleting recordsdata with backup packages comparable to Home windows Backup.
As well as, digital disk exhausting drives (VHDs) utilized by digital machines are deleted. A ransom notice 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 just isn’t paid by a deadline.
The place are the stolen recordsdata revealed?
Medusa, like many different ransomware gangs, operates a leak web site on the darkish internet. The so-called “Medusa weblog” publicises an inventory of hacked organisations, alongside a countdown informing the victims of their fee deadline.
Along with the darkish internet leak web site, accessible by way of Tor, Medusa additionally publicises hacks and publishes stolen knowledge on its public Telegram channel. Making it extra accessible than many different ransomware teams.
What forms of organisation does Medusa goal?
Medusa targets all kinds of trade sectors, however judging by these it has listed on its leak web site these sectors most affected embody excessive tech, manufacturing, and training. The biggest proportion of Medusa’s targets look like situated in the USA, adopted by the UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Italy. It is noticeable that organisations based mostly in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan don’t seem within the listing of victims.
Presumably the shortage of assaults on CIS international locations is kind of intentional?
It is exhausting to argue in any other case. That is small comfort, after all, for these organisations based mostly in international locations that Medusa has no qualms about attacking.
What organisations have been hit by Medusa?
Previous victims have included Minneapolis Public Colleges (MPS) district, which did not pay a million-dollar ransom and noticed roughly 92 GB of its stolen knowledge launched to the general public. It has additionally bragged about stealing the supply code of the Microsoft merchandise Bing Maps and Cortona prior to now. Different Medusa ransomware victims have included most cancers centres, and British excessive colleges.
And these ransomware victims have had their knowledge leaked by Medusa?
Sure, and never simply on the group’s web site on the darkish internet. Medusa has its personal “media crew” that publicises its leaks, posting on its public Telegram channel, and even going as far as to publish movies displaying proof of stolen knowledge.
So how can my firm defend itself from Medusa?
The finest recommendation is to observe the identical suggestions on how you can defend your organisation from different ransomware. These embody:
- making safe offsite backups.
- working up-to-date safety options and making certain that your computer systems are protected with the most recent safety patches in opposition to vulnerabilities.
- utilizing hard-to-crack distinctive passwords to guard delicate knowledge and accounts, in addition to enabling multi-factor authentication.
- encrypting delicate knowledge wherever doable.
- lowering the assault floor by disabling performance that your organization doesn’t want.
- educating and informing employees in regards to the dangers and strategies utilized by cybercriminals to launch assaults and steal knowledge.
Editor’s Be aware: The opinions expressed on this and different visitor creator articles are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially mirror these of Tripwire.