Agencies release update on Royal ransomware threat

The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency today released an update on Royal ransomware and encouraged health care and other critical infrastructure organizations to take certain steps to defend their networks from the latest variant, which disables antivirus software and exfiltrates data before encrypting systems and demanding millions of dollars in ransom.
 
“The Russian-speaking Royal ransomware gang continues to be a significant threat to the health care and other sectors,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “As indicated last week, the government believes that the Royal gang is related to the current BlackSuit ransomware gang and may use some of the same methodology and malware coding. Today’s alert on Royal indicates the group is primarily using phishing emails to deliver ransomware, then exploits known vulnerabilities, disables antivirus software and utilizes legitimate penetration testing software tools such as Cobalt Strike to exfiltrate data. In addition to loading the latest indicators of compromise, it is recommended that network and security monitoring tools include alerts for activation of Cobalt Strike and similar tools, along with alerts for the disablement of antivirus software. Known and exploited vulnerabilities, although a constant challenge to patch, remain a constant threat vector leveraged by the ‘bad guys’.”
 
For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.