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Ryuk Ransomware

Caleb Boma | March 2nd, 2021

 

According to SecurityWeek, security researchers identified a variant of the infamous Ryuk ransomware that is capable of lateral movement within the infected networks. Active since at least 2018 and believed to be operated by Russian cyber-criminals, the Ryuk ransomware has been involved in numerous high-profile attacks and researchers estimate the enterprise is worth $150 million. Ryuk has long been associated with the TrickBot malware, supposedly being operated by the same gang. However, the ransomware’s operations have continued even after a TrickBot takedown attempt by Microsoft and other organizations.

Details of Ryuk Ransomware

Sometimes also distributed through Emotet, Ryuk has been heavily reliant on BazarLoader for distribution since September 2020, with phishing emails used as the attack vector. In a recently published report, the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) said that it identified one Ryuk sample that could spread automatically within infected networks earlier this year. The ransomware has long relied on the use of other malware for the initial deployment and did not show signs of worm-like capabilities before, although it was able to encrypt data on network shares and removable drives.

Ryuk uses a combination of symmetric (AES) and asymmetric (RSA) algorithms for encryption, kills specific processes on the infected system, and appends the .RYK extension to the encrypted files, can turn on workstations using the Wake-on-LAN feature and destroy all shadow copies to prevent data recovery.

Ryuk ransomware has been the most invasive malware over the last year by infecting healthcare institutions and requesting high ransom demands. Defend against these attacks by investing in our Security Operations Center. Easily accessible, certified, engineers work together to solve your security issues 24/7. Ryuk ransomware is a group our team is familiar with, so stopping their processes is nothing new to us. However, we are aware of their evolving tactics and techniques and our engineers track these to be able to properly defend our clients’ networks.

SpearTip’s cyber experts continuously monitor environments 24/7 in our US-based Security Operations Center. Our certified engineers work in unison with our proprietary endpoint detection and response tool, ShadowSpear®. This allows your organization to have direct communication with our engineers at any moment and a completely transparent view of your risk profile.

If you are experiencing a breach, please call our Security Operations Center at 833.997.7327.

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