Ransomware groups weaponise stolen data to blackmail targets

A cybersecurity firm, Sophos, said that ransomware groups are weaponising stolen data to increase pressure on targets that refuse to pay.

In its new dark web report, titled, ‘Turning the Screws: The Pressure Tactics of Ransomware Gangs’, Sophos said the tactics of these criminals include sharing the contact details or doxing the family members of targeted chief executive officers (CEOs) and business owners, as well as threatening to report any information about illegal business activities uncovered in stolen data to the authorities.

In the report, Sophos X-Ops shared posts found on the dark web that showed how ransomware gangs referred to their targets as “irresponsible and negligent”, and in some cases, encouraged individual victims whose personal information was stolen to pursue litigation against their employer.

Director of Threat Research, Sophos, Christopher Budd, said: “In December 2023, in the wake of the MGM casino breach, Sophos began taking note of ransomware gangs’ propensity to turn the media into a tool they can use to not only increase pressure on their victims but take control of the narrative and shift the blame. We are also seeing gangs singling out the business leaders they deem ‘responsible’ for the ransomware attack at the companies they target. In one post we found, the attackers published a photo of a business owner with devil horns, along with their social security number.

“In a different post, the attackers encouraged employees to seek ‘compensation’ from their company, and, in other cases, the attackers threatened to notify customers, partners and competitors about data breaches. These efforts create a lightning rod for blame, increasing the pressure on businesses to pay up and potentially exacerbating the reputational damage from an attack.”Sophos X-Ops also found multiple posts by ransomware attackers detailing their plans to search for information within stolen data that could be used as leverage if companies don’t pay.

“For example, in one post, the WereWolves ransomware actor notes that any stolen data is subject to “a criminal legal assessment, a commercial assessment and an assessment in terms of insider information for competitors.” In another example, the ransomware group Monti noted that it found an employee at a targeted company searching for child sexual abuse material and threatened to go to the police with the information if the company didn’t pay the ransom,” the firm noted.

Sophos claimed that these posts aligned with a broader trend of criminals seeking to extort companies with increasingly sensitive data relating to employees, clients or patients, including mental health records, the medical records of children, “information about patients’ sexual problems” and “images of nude patients.”

According to it, in one ransomware case, the Qiulong ransomware group posted the personal data of a CEO’s daughter, as well as a link to her Instagram profile.

“Ransomware gangs are becoming increasingly invasive and bold about how and what they weaponise. Compounding pressure for companies, they’re not just stealing data and threatening to leak it, but they’re actively analyzing it for ways to maximize damage and create new opportunities for extortion. This means that organisations have to not only worry about corporate espionage and loss of trade secrets or illegal activity by employees but also these issues in conjunction with cyberattacks,” said Budd.