The infamous LockBit ransomware group has managed to amass a staggering $91 million from its victims in the United States since 2020, establishing itself as one of the most successful ransomware threats in existence.
This revelation comes from a joint advisory released by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and cybersecurity authorities from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and New Zealand earlier this week.
A Multitude of Victims
According to the advisory, the LockBit group successfully infiltrated around 1,700 American organizations over the past three years. Of these attacks, 16% were directed towards State, Local, and Tribunal (SLTT) governments, as indicated by MS-ISAC’s data. Consequently, municipal governments, counties, educational institutions, and public service organizations found themselves at the forefront as primary targets.
“LockBit was the most prevalent ransomware variant worldwide in 2022 and continues to exhibit prolificness in 2023,” states the report.
However, LockBit’s ambitions were not restricted solely to these organizations. Private sector businesses of all sizes were also heavily targeted. The report declares, “Since January 2020, LockBit affiliates have launched attacks against organizations across various critical infrastructure sectors, including finance, food and agriculture, education, energy, government and emergency services, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation.”
According to CSO Online, LockBit initially emerged in 2019 under the moniker ABCD, named after the file extension left on encrypted files. Its rapid rise to prominence led to the release of version 2.0 by 2020. This particular variant of the encryptor was identified as “the most impactful and widely deployed ransomware variant” in the first quarter of 2022, according to cyber researchers from Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks’ cybersecurity division.
Although the official tally of victims stands at approximately 1,700, the group itself claims to have compromised over 12,000 organizations.
Source: BleepingComputer
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Deepak Sen is a tech enthusiast who covers the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets. His articles provide readers with a glimpse into the ever-evolving world of technology.
