Cyber Crime

Ragnar Locker ransomware gang advertises Campari hack on Facebook

​Ragnar Locker Ransomware operators have started to run Facebook advertisements to force their victims into paying the ransom.

In November 2019, ransomware operators have started adopting a new double-extortion strategy first used by the Maze gang that sees threat actors also stealing unencrypted files before encrypting infected systems. Then the attackers threaten to release the stolen files if a ransom is not paid.

Ransomware operators are adopting multiple tricks to make pressure on the victims, such as publishing post press releases about their attacks.

Ragnar Locker Ransomware operators are improving their extortion technique and started running Facebook advertisements to make pressure on their victims and force them to pay the ransom.

Ragnar Locker gangs started hacking into a Facebook advertiser’s account and creating advertisements their hack, this has already happened with the recent attack on the Italian liquor company Campari Group.

Ragnar Locker ransomware gang breached the Campari Group’s network last week and claims to have stolen 2 TB of unencrypted files before encrypting the infected systems. The threat actors demanded a $15 million ransom to provide a decryptor to recover the files.

“Now, one crime group has started using hacked Facebook accounts to run ads publicly pressuring their ransomware victims into paying up.” states the popular investigator Brian Krebs that first reported the news about the new extortion scheme. “The ad was designed to turn the screws to the Italian beverage vendor Campari Group, which acknowledged on Nov. 3 that its computer systems had been sidelined by a malware attack.”

The advertising campaign has begun on the evening of Monday, Nov. 9, on Facebook.

This Facebook advertisement campaign run by the Ragnar ransomware Team was titled “Security breach of Campari Group network,” it warned the victims of further sensitive data would be released.

The owner of the account hacked by the ransomware gang told Brian Krebs that the advertisement was shown to over 7,000 Facebook users before Facebook detected it as a fraudulent campaign.

Chris Hodson told Krebs that the hacked Facebook account belongs to his deejay activity named Hodson Event Entertainment, the attackers had budgeted $500 for this campaign. Hodson said that the fraudulent advertisement was shown to 7,150 Facebook users before Facebook blocked it and generated 770 clicks.

“I thought I had two-step verification turned on for all my accounts, but now it looks like the only one I didn’t have it set for was Facebook,” Hodson said.

Hodson said that Facebook billed him $35 for the first part of the campaign, the company, but the social network giant detected the ads as fraudulent just before his account could be billed another $159 for the campaign.

Facebook said the company is still investigating the incident. 

The new extortion tactic demonstrates the continuous evolution of the ransomware extortion model, it is easy to prodict further sophisticated schema in the future.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Ragnar Locker ransomware)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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