Researchers working at Kaspersky Lab have discovered that an old variant of ransomware called Mamba Ransomware has resurfaced in Brazil and Saudi Arabia and is said to soon reach the shores of US and Canada.
Unlike other ransomware variants, Mamba Ransomware encrypts whole hard drives of organizations and destructs data without asking for ransom. Means, the only aim of the hackers in launching this malware is to cause data loss.
Kaspersky Lab confirmed that the said form of ransomware is designed to cause data destruction rather than generate ransom gains.
Researchers from Kaspersky Lab say that the said malware variant has already reached the United States making San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency its first victim in November last year.
Mamba ransomware uses an open source software tool called ‘DiskCryptor’ to fully lock down the hard drive of targeted organizations. The developers of Mamba only aim at corporates and other large organizations.
There is a buzz in the tech industry that Mamba Ransomware developers are hired by companies to destroy the database of their competitors. So, we can conclude that the developers of Mamba Ransomware are being hired as assassins to kill flourishing companies in different business verticals.
Kaspersky is still busy finding the persons behind Mamba attacks. However, some of the senior researchers working for the security firm suggest that the group spreading Mamba ransomware might be some state funded actors.
Note 1- Mamba is a fast moving venomous snake found in South Africa. Mamba is one of the top venomous snakes found in the world as it can cause a human death within 20 minutes of the bite.
Note 2- Perhaps ransomware developers wanted to show the severity of the malware through its name and so named the ransomware as ‘Mamba Ransomware’
