Sabbath hackers are targeting US schools and hospitals
The rebranded hacking group is demanding multi-million-dollar ransom payments, according to Mandiant
Security researchers have warned that a group of hackers have rebranded themselves to avoid scrutiny while mounting ransomware attacks against schools, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure organizations in the US and Canada.
The gang, now known as Sabbath, first became known in October 2021 when the group publicly shamed and extorted a US school district on Reddit and from the now-suspended Twitter account @54BB47h.
According to a blog post, security researchers at Mandiant said that in this extortion attempt, hackers demanded a multi-million-dollar ransom payments after deploying ransomware. Media reports indicated that the group took the unusually aggressive step of emailing staff, parents and even students directly to further apply public pressure on the school district.
Mandiant said the hackers used public data leaks to extort the victims to pay ransom demands as well as a public shaming blog. They added that the new Sabbath public shaming web portal and blog first published in October 2021 is identical to that of Arcane from June 2021.
“This included the same text content, and minor changes to the name, color scheme, and logo. The threat actor kept consistent grammatical errors in their updated web forums,” researchers said.
There were also a few technical changes made to the affiliate model used to carry out the attacks between the rebranding from Arcane to Sabbath. Infrastructure from both ransomware affiliate services remained unchanged.
RELATED RESOURCE
The best defence against ransomware
How ransomware is evolving and how to defend against it
Researchers said that the hackers have targeted critical infrastructure including education, health, and natural resources in the US and Canada since June 2021.
“The targeting of critical infrastructure by ransomware groups has become increasingly concerning as evidenced by governments moving to target ransomware actors as national security level threats with particular attention to groups that target and disrupt critical infrastructure,” Mandiant said.
While Sabbath is a lesser-known and potentially a smaller ransomware affiliate group, its smaller size and repeated rebranding have allowed it to avoid much public scrutiny. Researchers said that ransomware data theft operations affecting healthcare have increased from January 2020 to June 2021, despite some groups claiming they would avoid targeting hospitals.
Researchers observed two occasions where the ransomware operator provided its affiliates with pre-configured Cobalt Strike BEACON backdoor payloads.
“While the use of BEACON is common practice in ransomware intrusions, the use of a ransom affiliate program operator provided BEACON is unusual and offers both a challenge for attribution efforts while also offering additional avenues for detection,” they added.
-
Why patching velocity matters as Claude Mythos supercharges vulnerability discoveryFrontier AI models such as Claude Mythos and GPT-5.5 make patching more urgent than ever. How can firms increase the velocity at which they apply fixes and mitigations?
-
The UK is running on fumes as data center build-outs can’t keep pace with demandNews The country's vacancy rate has dropped sharply, with much of the pipeline early-stage and uncertain
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook
-
New ransomware threat group, The Gentlemen, has become one of the most active ransomware operators, accounting for 10% of all attacksNews NTT researchers warn that the RaaS group is leveraging SystemBC malware to establish covert tunnelling, evade detection, and support rapid lateral movement across enterprise environments
-
Instructure chose to a pay ransom following the Canvas cyber attack – research shows more than half of security leaders would follow suitAnalysis Opting to pay ransoms creates huge risks for enterprises – you’re relying on the word of criminals
-
Ransomware negotiator sentenced for role in major cyber crime groupNews Deniss Zolotarjovs was a key player in a group associated with Conti
-
Threat actors ditch ‘spray and pray’ attacks in shift to targeted exploitationNews A dip in ransomware volumes points to a more targeted approach focused on vulnerability exploitation
-
Security leaders overconfident about ransomware recovery
News Few manage to recover all their data, and many experience business disruption
-
German authorities want your help finding the hackers behind GandCrab and REvilNews Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin and Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk are believed to have made millions from ransomware as a service schemes
-
The rise of teen hackers ‘makes for a good headline’, but cyber crime activities peak later in life
News With family responsibilities and mortgages to pay, it's not teenagers dishing out malware or carrying out cyber extortion
