Security News > 2021 > May > Cybercriminals Target Companies With New 'Epsilon Red' Ransomware
A new piece of ransomware named Epsilon Red has been used to target at least one organization in the United States, and its operators have apparently already made a significant profit.
Cybersecurity firm Sophos reported last week that Epsilon Red operators have been spotted targeting a US-based company in the hospitality sector.
The cryptocurrency address provided by the cybercriminals shows a bitcoin transaction for an amount worth roughly $210,000, which seems to indicate that at least one victim has agreed to pay the ransom demanded by the cybercriminals.
Sophos researchers noticed that the ransom note dropped by Epsilon Red is similar to the one displayed by the REvil ransomware, but Epsilon Red's ransom note is better written - it does not contain some of the grammar errors in the REvil note.
Epsilon Red, developed in the Go language, has been described as "Bare-bones ransomware." The ransomware executable is small due to the fact that it's only designed to scan the system for folders it can encrypt and perform the actual encryption.
Sophos said it had not found any links to other cybercrime groups - except for the REvil ransom note similarities - and noted that the name Epsilon Red stems from an X-Men villain who has Russian origins.