Over 100 active ransomware groups are on FBI Tracking Radar

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made it official that it has been tracking over 100 active ransomware groups that are busy attacking American Businesses, schools, and other organizations.

Bryan Vorndran, the Assistant Director to the cyber division of FBI, disclosed the above stated news through a media statement issued on Tuesday, i.e. July 27th, 2021.

Vorndran added that his federal agency will put in all efforts to try mitigating the effects of the file encrypting malware hitting the networks.

Historically, if analyzed data is taken into consideration, FBI has tracked over 1000 variants of ransomware that hit over 20,000 organizations on a serious note. This includes the recently attacks launched on JBS Meat and Colonial Pipeline by DarkSide ransomware group.

REvil ransomware group has also proved to be the most active malware spreading group in the dark. However, from the past one month, the group is said to have underwent hibernation as most of its distribution networks were detected to be down or vanished on a permanent note for unknown reasons.

However, if old ransomware groups have moved to their hiding, new ones are seen sprouting up all the time and, in most cases, the new ones are turning to be affiliates of the old ones.

What’s concerning about the FBI’s latest find is that every month one or two new ransomware groups are adding to the list and tracking them down is becoming a tedious task as those who write the code of the ransomware often sell their hard work to third parties that earn profits by distributing the malicious payloads through email phishing attacks.

FBI has officially disclosed that most of the ransomware gangs are seen hiding in Russia and China as these nations are recruiting fresh talent in a timely manner to keep their profitable business of ransomware spread in continuance.

As there is a highly intense complexity involved in tracking such criminals, Bryan Vorndran felt that spreading awareness is the only way to keep the crime in check.

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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