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 known 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 a purpose to consider that the ransomware is in any trend associated to the enigmatic puzzles that appeared a decade earlier than it – aside from by way of the title.

Truthful sufficient. What kind of corporations are being hit by Cicada?

In accordance with a weblog put up by safety researchers at Morphisec, at the very least 21 corporations, 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 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 knowledge and that information on the corporate’s community have been encrypted. 

An additional message says that the gang is ready to supply “proof that the information has been stolen” and can delete all of the stolen info and “assist you rebuild your infrastructure and stop comparable assaults sooner or later” if a cryptocurrency fee is made.

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

Sure, the Cicada gang says that if a ransom will not be paid in time, then the stolen knowledge will likely be printed on its weblog. However additionally they say that the information will likely be despatched “to all regulatory authorities in your nation, in addition to to your prospects, 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 putting 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 the usage of Rusy, evasion methods, and timing, recommend a doable connection.

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

Rust is a programming language that has turn out to be fashionable with ransomware builders in recent times. 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 because of the difficulties some malware detection methods have in reliably detecting Rust-based ransomware through static evaluation.

I believed 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 in opposition to 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 danger of Cicada and different ransomware threats attacking my organisation?

• Preserve 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.
• Take into account using menace looking providers to proactively establish and mitigate threats.

Different finest practices embrace creating robust, distinctive passwords, and preserving software program present. It’s also suggested to report ransomware assaults to CISA, a neighborhood FBI discipline workplace or a Secret Service discipline workplace.

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