Kaseya VSA ransomware attack (2021)
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| Date | The attack took place on 2nd July 2021.[1] |
|---|---|
| Suspected actor | REvil (i.e., Ransomware Evil[2]) group, which is also known as Sodinokibi.[3] It is a Russian speaking and Russia-based Ransomware as-a-service (RaaS) gang. Moreover, according to Lawfare, "It really is the McDonald's of the criminal world with a very high profile".[4] |
| Target | Kaseya, a global IT infrastructure provider.[4] |
| Target systems | In general, the target systems were using Virtual System Administrator (VSA) software. The reason why Kaseya VSA was an attractive target is that this software is used by managed service providers (MSP),[4] which includes thousands of small businesses.[5] |
| Method | The attack was first detected as a supply chain attack. This idea was supported by US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI.[6] Nevertheless, a question arose later whether Kaseya was not facing a more conventional exploit attack targeting Kaseya VSA,[4][7] as it was not clear if the aimed upstream (VSA) was targeted for purpose of scaling downstream exploitation or not. Nevertheless, the conclusion was that it was a supply chain attack.[8] |
| Purpose | Primarily causing economic loss to Kaseya and its customers.[9] REvil in a post on their leak site announced that the universal decryption key was worth $70 million in BTC. This amount was the highest ransom demand to date.[10] |
| Result | According to Reuters, between 800 and 1500 businesses worldwide were affected by the attack.[11] One of the victims is also Coop, a Swedish chain of supermarkets, which was forced to close over more than half of its stores in Sweden.[12] Moreover, the ransomware attack also hit 11 schools in New Zealand.[13] |
| Aftermath | On 23 July, Kaseya announced it had received a universal decryptor tool for the REvil-encrypted files from an unnamed "trusted third party" and was helping victims restore their files.[14]
It is interesting that this was a universal decryptor key. This situation was explained by REvil on 9 September in an illicit Russian-language forum as “One of our coders misclicked and generated a universal key, and issued the universal decryptor key along with a bunch of keys for one machine. That’s how we sh*t ourselves.”[15] On 8 November 2021, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of Yaroslav Vasinskyi, an Ukrainian national detained in Poland in October,[16] charged for allegedly deploying the REvil ransomware attack against Kaseya.[17] In addition, in January 2022, Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested 14 alleged members of the REvil gang.[18] The authorities claim to have dismantled the group and charged several of its members, acting on the basis of information provided by the US.[19] |
| Analysed in | Scenario 14: Ransomware campaign |
Collected by: Anna Blechová
- ↑ RBS, ‘The Kaseya Attack: Everything to Know’, Risk Based Security (12 July 2021)
- ↑ Lucian Constantin, ‘REvil ransomware explained: A widespread extortion operation’, CSO Online (17 November 2020)
- ↑ Cahrlie Osborn, ‘Updated Kaseya ransomware attack FAQ:What we know now’, ZDNet, (23 July 2021)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Nicolas Weaver, ‘What Happened in the Kaseya VSA Incident?’, Lawfare (4 July 2021)
- ↑ Davey Winder, ‘$70 Million Demanded As REvil Ransomware Attackers Claim 1 Million Systems Hit’, Forbes (5 July 2021)
- ↑ ‘CISA-FBI Guidance for MSPs and their Customers Affected by the Kaseya VSA Supply-Chain Ransomware Attack’ (4 July 2021)
- ↑ RBS, ‘Is the Kaseya Hack Actually a Supply Chain Attack?, Risk Based Security’ (14 July 2021)
- ↑ Matt Howard, ‘Kaseya Ransomware: a Software Supply Chain Attack or Not?’, sonatype (6 July 2021)
- ↑ Alex Marquardt, ‘Ransomware group demands $70 million for Kaseya attack’, CNN (5 July 2021)
- ↑ Ionut Ilascu, ‘REvil ransomware asks $70 million to decrypt all Kaseya attack victims’, BleepingComputer (5 July 2021)
- ↑ Raphael Satter, ‘Up to 1,500 businesses affected by ransomware attack, U.S. firm’s CEO says’, Reuters ( 6 July 2021)
- ↑ Joe Tidy, ‘Swedish Coop supermarkets shut due to US ransomware cyber-attack’, BBC (3 July 2021)
- ↑ ‘Worldwide ransomware attack: St Peter’s College and 10 other schools hit by US cyber attack’, NZHerald (4 July 2021)
- ↑ Joe Tidy, ‘Ransomware key to unlock customer data from REvil attack’, BBC (23 July 2021)
- ↑ Michael Novinson, ‘REvil: We Accidentally Leaked Kaseya Universal Decryptor Key’, CRN (10 September 2021)
- ↑ Mitchell Clark, ‘An alleged member of the REvil ransomware gang has been arrested in Poland’, The Verge (8 November 2021)
- ↑ US Department of Justice, ‘Ukrainian Arrested and Charged with Ransomware Attack on Kaseya’, Press Release (8 November 2021); Ryan Gallagher and Jack Gillum, ‘Police Arrest Five Members Tied to the REvil Ransomware Gang’, Bloomberg (8 November 2021)
- ↑ Kevin Collier, ‘Russia arrests ransomware gang responsible for high-profile cyberattacks’, NBC News (14 January 2022)
- ↑ Joe Tidy, ‘REvil ransomware gang arrested in Russia’, BBC (14 January 2022)