August 2, 2024 at 08:11AM
An unnamed Fortune 50 corporation paid a record $75 million to the ransomware gang Dark Angels to prevent terabytes of data from being leaked online. The gang targets one major victim at a time, files of businesses likely to pay up. Zscaler confirms the gang’s stealthy operations and suggests a shift towards targeted cyber-heists.
The meeting notes you provided detail an extortion scheme carried out by a ransomware group called Dark Angels, who has been targeting high-profile businesses and demanding large ransom payments to prevent sensitive data leaks. The group is meticulous in its approach, focusing on individual targets and patiently exfiltrating large amounts of data over a period of weeks. This targeted strategy is a departure from the more indiscriminate, “spray-and-pray” tactics used by other ransomware groups. Additionally, it was noted that the group has not yet incorporated artificial intelligence into its tactics at a large scale, but there is a growing expectation that AI will be used to automate social engineering attacks in the future. Finally, the meeting notes emphasized the importance of staying vigilant against both technical attacks and social engineering attempts.