Security News > 2021 > April > Ransom Gangs Emailing Victim Customers for Leverage

Some of the top ransomware gangs are deploying a new pressure tactic to push more victim organizations into paying an extortion demand: Emailing the victim's customers and partners directly, warning that their data will be leaked to the dark web unless they can convince the victim firm to pay up.

Several gigabytes of the company's files - including employee tax and financial records - have been posted to the victim shaming site for the Clop ransomware gang.

Clop is one of several ransom gangs that will demand two ransoms: One for a digital key needed to unlock computers and data from file encryption, and a second to avoid having stolen data published or sold online.

Fabian Wosar, chief technology officer at computer security firm Emsisoft, said the direct appeals to victim customers is a natural extension of other advertising efforts by the ransomware gangs, which recently included using hacked Facebook accounts to post victim shaming advertisements.

Wosar said Clop isn't the only ransomware gang emailing victim customers.

"Sadly, regardless of whether a ransom is paid, consumers whose data has been stolen are still at risk as there is no way of knowing if ransomware gangs delete the data as they promise," Abrams wrote.

News URL

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/ransom-gangs-emailing-victim-customers-for-leverage/