Security News > 2021 > November > FBI: HelloKitty ransomware adds DDoS attacks to extortion tactics
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has sent out a flash alert warning private industry partners that the HelloKitty ransomware gang has added distributed denial-of-service attacks to their arsenal of extortion tactics.
In a Friday notification coordinated with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI said that the ransomware group would take their victims' official websites down in DDoS attacks if they didn't comply with the ransom demands.
HelloKity is a human-operated ransomware operation active since November 2020 and first observed by the FBI in January 2021.
Based on submissions made by their victims on the ID Ransomware platform, HelloKitty significantly increased its activity in July and August, immediately after starting to use the Linux variant in attacks.
The HelloKitty ransomware or its variants have also been used under other names including DeathRansom and Fivehands.
The FBI also shared an extensive collection of indicators of compromise in their alert to help cybersecurity professionals and system admins to guard against attack attempts coordinated by the HelloKitty ransomware gang.
News URL
Related news
- AutoCanada says ransomware attack "may" impact employee data (source)
- Microsoft Identifies Storm-0501 as Major Threat in Hybrid Cloud Ransomware Attacks (source)
- Embargo ransomware escalates attacks to cloud environments (source)
- JPCERT shares Windows Event Log tips to detect ransomware attacks (source)
- Ransomware attack forces UMC Health System to divert some patients (source)
- CUPS vulnerabilities could be abused for DDoS attacks (source)
- Cloudflare blocks largest recorded DDoS attack peaking at 3.8Tbps (source)
- Recently patched CUPS flaw can be used to amplify DDoS attacks (source)
- Cloudflare Thwarts Largest-Ever 3.8 Tbps DDoS Attack Targeting Global Sectors (source)
- Largest Recorded DDoS Attack is 3.8 Tbps (source)