Hunters International attacks Ayuntamiento de Teo

Ayuntamiento de Teo has suffered a ransomware attack, allegedly by the Hunters International ransomware group. The council said it is working on the recovery of its services, some of which are mainly affected, but not large, information packages hosted on external servers. It also said that as soon as the attack was discovered, it immediately activated its action protocols to minimize the impact of the incursion, which is being investigated in conjunction with several agencies. The Ayuntamiento de Teo is a town hall in Teo, a municipality in the province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. Hunters International, a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) group, emerged in Q3 of 2023 after the discovery of source code bearing resemblances to the infamous Hive ransomware strain. In October 2023, a security researcher's analysis of the ransomware used by Hunters revealed significant code overlaps with Hive ransomware. Subsequent analysis by Bitdefender came to the same findings, leading researchers to conclude that Hive operators have handed off their malicious tool to another threat actor. Despite this, Hunters International has denied any ties to the Hive operation. Intelligence suggests that Hunters International ransomware primarily aims to exfiltrate target data and extort victims with ransom demands for its return. One reported incident involved a plastic surgery clinic in the US, where approximately 248,000 files, including patient names and addresses, were exfiltrated. The ransomware encrypts files with the ".LOCKED" extension and leaves "Contact Us.txt" files in directories, instructing victims on how to initiate negotiation on the dark web. Successful exploitation by Hunters International typically results in significant data exfiltration prior to issuing a ransom demand, often tailored to the perceived value of the compromised organization.