Posts by Bill Siegel

As we approach the one year anniversary of two prominent ransomware group collapses (Lockbit and BlackCat/ALPHV), we find the ransomware ecosystem to be as fractured and uncertain as it did in the months following these events. The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model remains irreversibly tarnished after the groups that pioneered this framework were exposed as being fraught with infighting, deception, lost profits, and compromised anonymity for their affiliates. Joint law enforcement actions over the last year have systematically impaired the resources ransomware actors depend on to operate. In the case of domestic threats, law enforcement efforts have even put a number of bad actors behind bars. While certain groups persist and new names continue to trickle in and out of the ransom-sphere, ... Read more

Throughout 2024, law enforcement agencies worldwide intensified their fight against cybercrime, leading to significant arrests and takedowns of major cybercriminal groups. Q4 alone saw a substantial flurry of actions. On Oct. 1, 2024, authorities arrested four individuals linked to the notorious LockBit ransomware gang, including a developer, a bulletproof hosting service administrator, and two other affiliates. This followed formal sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on LockBit members, marking a major step in disrupting the group's global operations. Later in the month, on Oct. 28, Dutch law enforcement executed Operation Magnus, successfully seizing the infrastructure of Redline and Meta Infostealer, two malware-as-a-service platforms used to steal sensitive credentials. Read more