What’s the Cicada ransomware?
Cicada (also referred to as Cicada3301) is refined ransomware written in Rust that has claimed greater than 20 victims since its discovery in June 2024.
Why is the ransomware referred to as Cicada?
The criminals behind Cicada seem to have named it after the mysterious Cicada 3301 puzzles posted on the web between 2012 and 2014, seemingly to recruit extremely smart people.
After all, there isn’t any cause to consider that the ransomware is in any vogue associated to the enigmatic puzzles that appeared a decade earlier than it – apart from by way of the title.
Honest sufficient. What kind of firms are being hit by Cicada?
In line with a blog post by safety researchers at Morphisec, a minimum of 21 firms, predominantly in North America and the UK, have been hit by Cicada since June 18, 2024.
A lot of the organisations affected have been small and mid-sized companies (18), with the remaining three described as enterprises. Victims have been famous in quite a lot of trade sectors, together with manufacturing/industrial, healthcare, retail, and hospitality.
Organizations hit by the Cicada ransomware are greeted by a message telling them that attackers have downloaded their vital information and that information on the corporate’s community have been encrypted.
An additional message says that the gang is ready to offer “proof that the info has been stolen” and can delete all of the stolen info and “assist you to rebuild your infrastructure and stop comparable assaults sooner or later” if a cryptocurrency cost is made.
And I suppose they’ll publish the info should you do not pay up?
Sure, the Cicada gang says that if a ransom isn’t paid in time, then the stolen information will probably be revealed on its weblog. However in addition they say that the info will probably be despatched “to all regulatory authorities in your nation, in addition to to your prospects, companions, and rivals.”
That is a nasty risk. Do we all know who’s behind Cicada?
Though we have no idea the identities of these accountable, safety researchers say that there are placing similarities between Cicada and the ALPHV BlackCat ALPHV ransomware – which can also be written in Rust.
Whereas there is no definitive proof, the similarities between Cicada and BlackCat, together with the usage of Rusy, evasion strategies, and timing, counsel a attainable connection.
You have talked about Rust a number of instances. What’s that?
Rust is a programming language that has grow to be standard with ransomware builders lately. Particularly, ransomware teams like BlackCat and Hive have used Rust to create strains of their malware – partially as a result of it makes reverse-engineering extra difficult and as a result of difficulties some malware detection programs have in reliably detecting Rust-based ransomware by way of static evaluation.
I assumed the authorities had taken motion to disrupt the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware?
Effectively remembered. In December 2013, the US Division of Justice announced it had disrupted the ransomware gang’s operations and seized decryption keys to assist victims unlock their information with out paying a ransom.
Nonetheless, that victory was short-lived. ALPHV BlackCat re-emerged, threatened retaliation in opposition to nations that assisted with the takedown, and explicitly warned that it could attack hospitals in future.
They do not sound like a pleasant bunch.
That is placing it mildly.
What can I do to scale back the danger of Cicada and different ransomware threats attacking my organisation?
- Maintain your safety software program up to date.
- Educate your workers about phishing emails and different social engineering strategies.
- Implement sturdy backup and restoration procedures.
- Monitor your atmosphere for suspicious exercise.
- Take into account using risk searching providers to proactively determine and mitigate threats.
Different finest practices embrace creating robust, distinctive passwords, and holding software program present. It is usually suggested to report ransomware assaults to CISA, an area FBI area workplace or a Secret Service area workplace.
Editor’s Word: The opinions expressed on this visitor creator article are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially mirror these of Tripwire.
