• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Critical FortiSIEM flaw under active exploitation, Fortinet warns

 | 

Charon Ransomware targets Middle East with APT attack methods

 | 

Hackers leak 2.8M sensitive records from Allianz Life in Salesforce data breach

 | 

SAP fixed 26 flaws in August 2025 Update, including 4 Critical

 | 

August 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes a Windows Kerberos Zero-Day

 | 

Dutch NCSC: Citrix NetScaler zero-day breaches critical orgs

 | 

Chrome sandbox escape nets security researcher $250,000 reward

 | 

Smart Buses flaws expose vehicles to tracking, control, and spying

 | 

MedusaLocker ransomware group is looking for pentesters

 | 

Google confirms Salesforce CRM breach, faces extortion threat

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 57

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 536 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Embargo Ransomware nets $34.2M in crypto since April 2024

 | 

Germany limits police spyware use to serious crimes

 | 

Phishing attacks exploit WinRAR flaw CVE-2025-8088 to install RomCom

 | 

French firm Bouygues Telecom suffered a data breach impacting 6.4M customers

 | 

Columbia University data breach impacted 868,969 people

 | 

SonicWall dismisses zero-day fears after Ransomware probe

 | 

Air France and KLM disclosed data breaches following the hack of a third-party platform

 | 

CISA, Microsoft warn of critical Exchange hybrid flaw CVE-2025-53786

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Play ransomware group hit 900 organizations since 2022

Play ransomware group hit 900 organizations since 2022

Pierluigi Paganini June 06, 2025

A joint advisory from the US and Australian authorities states that Play ransomware has hit approximately 900 organizations over the past three years.

A joint advisory from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) states that Play ransomware has hit approximately 900 organizations over the past three years.

The Play ransomware group has been active since June 2022, the list of victims includes the City of Oakland, the Cloud services provider Rackspace, and the Dutch maritime logistics company Royal Dirkzwager.

In December 2023, CISA, the FBI, and ACSC warned of Play ransomware’s operation that hit 300 victims by October 2023. Updates to this advisory include new TTPs employed by Play ransomware group, as well as providing fresh IOCs.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) are releasing this joint advisory to disseminate the Play ransomware group’s IOCs and TTPs identified through FBI investigations as recently as January 2025.” reads the advisory. “As of May 2025, FBI was aware of approximately 900 affected entities allegedly exploited by the ransomware actors.”

The Play ransomware group follows a double extortion model. Victims are instructed to contact the group via @gmx[.]de or @web[.]de email addresses and pay the ransom in cryptocurrency. If they refuse, Play actors threaten to publish the stolen data on their leak site hosted on the Tor network.

The Play ransomware group gain initial access to the target infrastructure by relying on stolen credentials and exploiting known flaws in FortiOS, Microsoft Exchange, and external-facing services like RDP and VPNs. Recently, actors linked to Play have also exploited a new SimpleHelp vulnerability (CVE-2024-57727) to remotely execute malicious code, expanding their attack methods and reach in 2025.

The threat actors behind the operation use tools like AdFind and Grixba to gather network data and identify antivirus defenses, then disable security software using GMER, IOBit, or PowerTool. They often deploy PowerShell scripts to target Microsoft Defender. Attackers rely on Cobalt Strike, SystemBC, and PsExec for lateral movement. By stealing credentials with Mimikatz and escalating privileges with WinPEAS, they spread malware via Group Policy Objects. Each ransomware binary is recompiled, making detection harder.

The report also provides information on a Play ransomware ESXi variant that shuts down all virtual machines and encrypts their files using randomly generated keys for each file.

“Like the Windows variant of Play ransomware, the ESXi variant must be recompiled for each campaign.” concludes the report. “Through command line flags, the binary supports additional functionality likely used for development and debugging, including exempting specific VMs from encryption, targeting only one file for encryption, or skipping the file extension check and attempting to encrypt all files.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, malware)


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Play ransomware Security Affairs Security News

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini August 13, 2025
Critical FortiSIEM flaw under active exploitation, Fortinet warns
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini August 13, 2025
Charon Ransomware targets Middle East with APT attack methods
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Critical FortiSIEM flaw under active exploitation, Fortinet warns

    Hacking / August 13, 2025

    Charon Ransomware targets Middle East with APT attack methods

    Malware / August 13, 2025

    Hackers leak 2.8M sensitive records from Allianz Life in Salesforce data breach

    Data Breach / August 13, 2025

    SAP fixed 26 flaws in August 2025 Update, including 4 Critical

    Uncategorized / August 13, 2025

    August 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes a Windows Kerberos Zero-Day

    Hacking / August 12, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT