"BlackCat Emerges as One of the Top Ransomware Threats"

The BlackCat ransomware gang has become one of the major ransomware threats. BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, appears to be a descendant of the BlackMatter ransomware group. The group has been in operation since November and has launched significant attacks such as the disruption of OilTanking GmbH, a German fuel company, and the February attack on the aviation company Swissport. In addition, the ransomware group recently claimed that it was responsible for attacks against Florida International University and the University of North Carolina A&T. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a flash alert regarding BlackCat ransomware, which included indicators of compromise (IOCs). According to the FBI, the ransomware gang has attacked at least 60 organizations globally as of last month, through the use of previously compromised user credentials to gain access to victims' networks. Matthew Radolec, senior director of incident response and cloud operations at Varonis, says most of BlackCat's attacks stem from the increasingly adopted Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. One of the key aspects of BlackCat that makes them unique from other ransomware groups and effective in deploying their malware, is that the gang uses the programming language Rust. As Rust emphasizes performance, the process of encryption is fast. Rust is also cross-platform, which makes it easier for attackers to create variants for both Windows and Linux systems. RaaS groups are expected to increasingly use the Rust programming language because it is more flexible than Objective C or Visual Basic. This article continues to discuss the growing threat of the BlackCat ransomware gang. 

TechTarget reports "BlackCat Emerges as One of the Top Ransomware Threats"