Cicada Ransomware – What You Want To Know

What’s the Cicada ransomware?

Cicada (often known as Cicada3301) is subtle 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 very smart people. 

After all, there is no such thing as a motive to consider that the ransomware is in any style associated to the enigmatic puzzles that appeared a decade earlier than it – apart from by way of the identify.

Honest sufficient. What kind of firms are being hit by Cicada?

Based on a weblog submit by safety researchers at Morphisec, not less than 21 firms, predominantly in North America and the UK, have been hit by Cicada since June 18, 2024. 

Many 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 business 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 essential knowledge and that information on the corporate’s community have been encrypted. 

An extra 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 “aid you rebuild your infrastructure and forestall related assaults sooner or later” if a cryptocurrency cost is made.

And I suppose they’ll publish the info in case you do not pay up?

Sure, the Cicada gang says that if a ransom shouldn’t be paid in time, then the stolen knowledge might be revealed on its weblog. However in addition they say that the info might be despatched “to all regulatory authorities in your nation, in addition to to your clients, companions, and opponents.”

That is a nasty menace. Do we all know who’s behind Cicada?

Though we have no idea the identities of these accountable, safety researchers say that there are hanging similarities between Cicada and the ALPHV BlackCat ALPHV ransomware – which can also be written in Rust. 

Whereas there is not any definitive proof, the similarities between Cicada and BlackCat, together with using Rusy, evasion methods, and timing, recommend a doable connection.

You have talked about Rust a couple of occasions. What’s that?

Rust is a programming language that has turn into fashionable 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 tough and because of the difficulties some malware detection methods have in reliably detecting Rust-based ransomware through 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 introduced it had disrupted the ransomware gang’s operations and seized decryption keys to assist victims unlock their knowledge with out paying a ransom. 

Nevertheless, that victory was short-lived. ALPHV BlackCat re-emerged, threatened retaliation towards international locations that assisted with the takedown, and explicitly warned that it might assault hospitals in future.

They do not sound like a pleasant bunch.

That is placing it mildly.

What can I do to scale back the chance of Cicada and different ransomware threats attacking my organisation?

• Maintain your safety software program up to date.
• Educate your staff about phishing emails and different social engineering methods.
• Implement strong backup and restoration procedures.
• Monitor your surroundings for suspicious exercise.
• Think about using menace searching providers to proactively determine and mitigate threats.

Different greatest practices embrace creating robust, distinctive passwords, and maintaining software program present. Additionally it is suggested to report ransomware assaults to CISA, an area FBI discipline workplace or a Secret Service discipline workplace.

Editor’s Observe: The opinions expressed on this visitor writer article are solely these of the contributor and don’t essentially mirror these of Tripwire.