Ransomware and extortion groups are increasingly employing sophisticated exfiltration techniques to steal sensitive data from targeted organizations, which are motivated by financial gain and the potential to leverage stolen data for blackmail or further malicious activities.
Attackers target a wide range of data, including intellectual property, financial records, and personally identifiable information, by utilizing advanced tools and techniques to bypass security measures and extract valuable data.
By understanding the methods used by these threat actors, organizations can improve their security posture and mitigate the risk of successful exfiltration attacks.
They have adopted double extortion tactics between 2019 and 2024, which involves not only encrypting victims’ data but also exfiltrating it. By stealing sensitive information, attackers can extort additional ransom payments or sell the data on the dark web.
The shift in tactics has significantly heightened the risk and impact of ransomware attacks, forcing organizations to implement robust cybersecurity measures to protect their data and systems.
Cyber attackers often exploit stolen data by publicly disclosing it on leak sites, causing significant financial and reputational harm to victims, while they may also sell this data to other malicious actors or utilize it for further extortion attempts and subsequent cyberattacks.
It maximizes the potential impact of data breaches, making it crucial for organizations to implement robust security measures to protect sensitive information.
The groups are prioritizing data exfiltration over encryption to maximize profits and evade detection, which enables them to extort victims without disrupting operations, making recovery more difficult and costly.
State-sponsored actors employ exfiltration to gather sensitive information, obscure their identity, and generate additional revenue, further highlighting the strategic value of stolen data in the threat landscape.
They have evolved their extortion tactics over the past five years, as they now strategically pre-qualify and triage stolen data, focusing on high-value, sensitive information.
It enhances leverage for double extortion, as attackers can selectively release or sell sensitive data, such as financial records, personal information, and classified documents, to further pressure victims.
By employing a mix of custom and publicly available tools, it steals sensitive data, which is tailored for specific exfiltration tasks like network mapping, data compression, and uploading.
Advanced threat actors often develop custom tools for optimized and covert operations. While commodity malware like infostealers and MaaS tools may be used, they are less prevalent than publicly available options.
Sekoia asserts that cybercriminals use legitimate tools to steal data in a stealthy manner by imitating the traffic that is normally produced by networks.
To counter this, organizations must implement robust security measures, which include closely monitoring network activity for unusual file access patterns and the presence of known data exfiltration tools, particularly focusing on critical data repositories.
It is possible for organizations to effectively mitigate the risks of data theft and ransomware incidents if they take proactive measures to detect these stealthy attacks.
