BianLian Ransomware Group's Attack on Plastic Molding Technology Inc.

BianLian ransomware group claimed responsibility for attacking Plastic Molding Technology Inc. Based on the leaked data, it appears that the ransomware threat actor has accessed and leaked a wide range of sensitive information, including financial data, HR information, law cases, internal email correspondence, contracts, and agreements.

Plastic Molding Technology solves mission-critical needs to reduce supply chain risk and complexity. They offer broad capabilities — including injection molding, thermoforming and extrusion — coupled with technical expertise to bring forward-thinking solutions to customer projects. With four strategic locations in the Mountain time zone, PMT is well equipped to support a range of customer requirements and meet exacting standards.

BianLian's Evolution

BianLian is not a traditional RaaS. They first emerged in June 2022 as a typical RaaS provider with Golang-based ransomware until a decrypter was released. In early 2023 they appear to have abandoned the ransomware payload portion of attacks in favor of less complicated data exfiltration and extortion attacks. This shows how successful the double extortion strategy is for ransomware groups, and we will likely see more groups join the likes of BianLian (and Karakurt before them).

BianLian leverages open-source tooling and command-line scripts to engage in credential harvesting and data exfiltration. BianLian increased attack volumes as they have moved away from deploying ransomware payloads in favor of pure data extortion attacks, making them one of the more prominent groups in Q1-2023, although still lagging far behind leaders.

Ransom Demands and Negotiations

It is unclear how much BianLian typically requests for a ransom amount, or if they are keen to negotiate the demand down. BianLian successfully attacked several high-profile organizations before a free decryption tool was released to help victims recover files encrypted by ransomware. The group appears to have abandoned the RaaS model in favor of pure data extortion attacks where data is exfiltrated and ransom demand issues, but no ransomware is deployed.

Technical Tactics and Targets

BianLian has been observed deploying a custom Go-based backdoor for remote access. BianLian uses PowerShell and Windows Command Shell to bypass and evade security solutions. BianLian primarily targets financial institutions, healthcare, manufacturing, education, entertainment, and energy sectors by leveraging compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials. Almost exclusively a data extortion attack group now, rarely observed deploying ransomware payloads.