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.
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