Conti ransomware operations surge despite the recent leak

Conti ransomware gang continues to target organizations worldwide despite the massive data leak has shed light on its operations.

Researchers from Secureworks state that the Conti ransomware gang, tracked as a Russia-based threat actor Gold Ulrick, continues to operate despite the recent data leak on its internal activities.

The group’s activity returned to the levels that represented a peak in 2021, the gang rapidly reacted to the public disclosure of its communications, source code, and operational details.

“The number of victims added to the Conti leak site increased in February 2022. On February 27, the @ContiLeaks Twitter persona began leaking GOLD ULRICK data and communications. Despite these public disclosures, the number of Conti victims posted in March surged to the second-highest monthly total since January 2021.” reads the post published by Secureworks Conter Threat Unit (CTU).

One of the members of the GOLD ULRICK gang that goes online with the moniker ‘Jordan Conti’ said that the leak had a minimal impact on its operation.

According to a post published by ‘Jordan Conti’ on the RAMP underground forum the Conti darweb leak site only lists victims that refused to pay the ransom and that the gang has compromised twice that number.

This means that the Conti gang has a 50% payment success rate with an average payout of ‘700k’.

The Conti ransomware operators added 11 new victims to the list on their leak site in the first four days of April, its success is due to the evolution of its tactics, techniques and procedures.

“‘Jordan Conti’ indicates that GOLD ULRICK continues to evolve its ransomware, intrusion methods, and approaches to working with data. The Conti leak site added 11 victims in the first four days of April. If GOLD ULRICK operations continue at that pace, the group will continue to pose one of the most significant cybercrime threats to organizations globally.” concludes the analysis.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Conti 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”.