• Home
  • Politics
  • Health
  • World
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
What's Hot

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Friday, May 9
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
  • Home
  • Politics

    Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man

    October 24, 2023

    Woman makes disturbing discovery after her boyfriend chases away home intruder who stabbed him

    October 24, 2023

    Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly support Israel’s war on Hamas, but younger Americans defend Hamas

    October 24, 2023

    Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut off engines midflight on Alaska Airlines

    October 23, 2023

    Leaked audio of Shelia Jackson Lee abusively cursing staffer

    October 22, 2023
  • Health

    Disparities In Cataract Care Are A Sorry Sight

    October 16, 2023

    Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand

    October 16, 2023

    Long-term steroid use should be a last resort

    October 16, 2023

    Rite Aid Files For Bankruptcy With More ‘Underperforming Stores’ To Close

    October 16, 2023

    Who’s Still Dying From Complications Related To Covid-19?

    October 16, 2023
  • World

    New York Democrat Dan Goldman Accuses ‘Conservatives in the South’ of Holding Rallies with ‘Swastikas’

    October 13, 2023

    IDF Ret. Major General Describes Rushing to Save Son, Granddaughter During Hamas Invasion

    October 13, 2023

    Black Lives Matter Group Deletes Tweet Showing Support for Hamas 

    October 13, 2023

    AOC Denounces NYC Rally Cheering Hamas Terrorism: ‘Unacceptable’

    October 13, 2023

    L.A. Prosecutors Call Out Soros-Backed Gascón for Silence on Israel

    October 13, 2023
  • Business

    Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

    May 8, 2025

    Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

    May 7, 2025

    Tyson Foods Announces It Will Bend The Knee To Trump Admin’s New Rules

    May 7, 2025

    Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates Steady Despite Pressure From Trump

    May 7, 2025

    ‘Wait Them Out’: John Kennedy Tells Larry Kudlow One Lie He Suspects China’s Telling US

    May 7, 2025
  • Finance

    Ending China’s De Minimis Exception Brings 3 Benefits for Americans

    April 17, 2025

    The Trump Tariff Shock Should Push Indonesia to Reform Its Economy

    April 17, 2025

    Tariff Talks an Opportunity to Reinvigorate the Japan-US Alliance

    April 17, 2025

    How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War

    April 16, 2025

    The US Flip-flop Over H20 Chip Restrictions 

    April 16, 2025
  • Tech

    Cruz Confronts Zuckerberg on Pointless Warning for Child Porn Searches

    February 2, 2024

    FTX Abandons Plans to Relaunch Crypto Exchange, Commits to Full Repayment of Customers and Creditors

    February 2, 2024

    Elon Musk Proposes Tesla Reincorporates in Texas After Delaware Judge Voids Pay Package

    February 2, 2024

    Tesla’s Elon Musk Tops Disney’s Bob Iger as Most Overrated Chief Executive

    February 2, 2024

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Grew $84 Billion in 2023 as Pedophiles Target Children on Facebook, Instagram

    February 2, 2024
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
Home»Business»Explainer: What is Lockbit? The digital extortion gang on a cybercrime spree
Business

Explainer: What is Lockbit? The digital extortion gang on a cybercrime spree

November 11, 2023No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
People walk past a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Beijing

People walk past a branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. Picture taken April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – A cybercriminal group named Lockbit, which on Friday said it breached the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC), has hacked some of the world’s largest organisations in recent months, stealing and leaking their sensitive data if they didn’t pay ransom. Here are some details about the group:

WHERE IS LOCKBIT FROM?

Lockbit was discovered in 2020 when its eponymous malicious software was found on Russian-language cybercrime forums, leading some security analysts to believe the gang is based in Russia. The gang has not professed support for any government, however, nor has any government formally attributed it to a nation-state.

“We are located in the Netherlands, completely apolitical and only interested in money,” the gang says on its dark web blog.

In just three years, it has become the world’s top ransomware threat, according to U.S. officials. Nowhere has it been more disruptive than in the United States, hitting more than 1,700 American organisations in nearly every industry from financial services and food to schools, transportation and government departments.

Among its latest victims is the defense and aerospace giant Boeing (BA.N). On Friday, Lockbit leaked a cache of internal data it had obtained by breaching Boeing’s systems. Earlier in the year the gang’s hack into the financial-trading services group ION disrupted operations at customers that included some of the world’s biggest banks, brokerages and hedge funds.

See also  Warner Bros to expand British studios' production capacity by over 50%

HOW DOES LOCKBIT TARGET ORGANISATIONS?

The cybercrime gang infects a victim organisation’s system with ransomware – malicious software that encrypts data – and then coerces targets into paying ransom to decrypt or unlock it. Such ransom is usually demanded in the form of cryptocurrency, which is harder to trace and gives the receiver anonymity.

U.S. and other officials in a 40-country alliance have been trying to trying to stem the global scourge of ransomware by sharing intelligence between nations on the cryptocurrency wallet addresses of such criminals.

On the dark web, Lockbit’s blog displays an ever-growing gallery of victim organisations that is updated nearly daily. Next to their names are digital clocks showing the number of days left to the deadline given to each organisation to provide ransom payment, failing which, the gang publishes the sensitive data it has collected.

Often victim organisations will seek the help of cybersecurity companies to identify what data was leaked and negotiate ransom amounts with the hackers. Such behind-the-scenes talks usually remain private and can sometimes take days or weeks, according to security analysts.

It’s common for some victim names to not show up on the Lockbit blog if the threat was made privately. ICBC’s U.S. unit, which said it was working on recovering from the breach, was not listed on Lockbit’s blog on Friday.

HOW DOES LOCKBIT OPERATE?

In part, Lockbit’s success depends on its so-called ‘affiliates’ – likeminded criminal groups who are recruited to wage attacks using Lockbit’s digital extortion tools.

On its website, the gang boasts of its successes in hacking various organisations and lays out a detailed set of rules for cybercriminals who may submit an “application form” to work with them. “Ask your friends or acquaintances who already work with us to vouch for you,” one of those rules says.

See also  New York Times Sues AI Giants For Alleged Copyright Violation

This web of alliances between cybercriminal groups makes tracking such hacking activity and attempts to ransom victims difficult, since their tactics and techniques can vary with each attack.

Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in San Francisco and James Pearson in London; Editing by Rod Nickel

: .

Acquire Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Reports on hacks, leaks and digital espionage in Europe. Ten years at Reuters with previous postings in Hanoi as Bureau Chief and Seoul as Korea Correspondent. Author of ‘North Korea Confidential’, a book about daily life in North Korea. Contact: 447927347451

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

May 7, 2025

Tyson Foods Announces It Will Bend The Knee To Trump Admin’s New Rules

May 7, 2025

Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates Steady Despite Pressure From Trump

May 7, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Jimmy Kimmel Spots The Most Baffling Part Of Trump’s Anti-New York Rant

April 21, 2023

Chinese Communists Have ‘Supreme Access’ to All Tiktok User Data

June 8, 2023

Exclusive: Tesla taps Asian partners to address 4680 battery concerns

March 12, 2023

Manhunt Underway For Roy McGrath, Maryland Governor’s Former Chief Of Staff

March 15, 2023
Don't Miss

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

Business May 8, 2025

President Donald Trump announced Thursday the U.S. has reached a trade agreement with the U.K.,…

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025

Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

May 7, 2025
About
About

This is your World, Tech, Health, Entertainment and Sports website. We provide the latest breaking news straight from the News industry.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Categories
  • Business (4,110)
  • Entertainment (4,220)
  • Finance (3,202)
  • Health (1,938)
  • Lifestyle (1,626)
  • Politics (3,084)
  • Sports (4,036)
  • Tech (2,006)
  • Uncategorized (4)
  • World (3,944)
Our Picks

Cam Newton Taunts Fan With Obscene Gesture After Being Heckled

July 24, 2023

China Would ‘Firmly Oppose’ Forced Sale of TikTok

March 30, 2023

Chiefs’ Kadarius Toney Thoroughly Mocked After ‘Trash’ Performance Against Lions

September 9, 2023
Popular Posts

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025
© 2025 Patriotnownews.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.