Pierluigi Paganini October 21, 2021

Evil Corp cybercrime gang is using a new ransomware called Macaw Locker to evade US sanctions that prevent victims from paying the ransom.

Evil Corp has launched a new ransomware called Macaw Locker to evade US sanctions that prevent victims from making ransom payments.

Bleeping Computer, citing Emsisoft CTO Fabian Wosar, reported that the Macaw Locker ransomware is the latest rebrand of Evil Corp. The Macaw Locker ransomware encrypts victims’ files and append the .macaw extension to the file name of the encrypted files. The malware drops ransom notes (macaw_recover.txt) in each folder, the ransom note includes the link to a unique victim negotiation page.

The Evil Corp cybercrime group (aka the Dridex gang Indrik Spider, the Dridex gang, and TA505) has been active in cybercrime activities since 2007. The group started its operations by developing and distributing the infamous Dridex banking Trojan, then it switched to ransomware operation by infecting victims’ computer networks with the BitPaymer ransomware.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged Russian citizens Maksim V. (32) and Igor Turashev (38) for distributing the infamous Dridex banking Trojan, and for their involvement in international bank fraud and computer hacking schemes.

The US Government announced sanctions for ransomware negotiation firms that will support victims of the Evil Corp group in the ransom payments.

Due to these sanctions, Evil Corp launched several ransomware operations that employed different strains of ransomware, such as WastedLocker, Hades, Phoenix Locker, and PayloadBin.

The Macaw Locker was recently involved in attacks against Olympus and the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Bleeping Computer also reported that Macaw Locker operators demanded $28 million and $40 million ransom worth of Bitcoin in two separate attacks against unnamed companies.

Experts speculate that after the exposure of the Macaw Locker operation, Evil Corp will rebrand their ransomware again.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Macaw Locker)

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