LockBit attacks the Alianza Francesca - Santiago School
Incident Date:
November 2, 2023
Overview
Title
LockBit attacks the Alianza Francesca - Santiago School
Victim
Alianza Francesca - Santiago
Attacker
Lockbit
Location
First Reported
November 2, 2023
LockBit Ransomware Attack on Alianza Francesa - Santiago School
Introduction to the Incident
LockBit has named the Alianza Francesa - Santiago School as their victim. According to the group's announcement, the School has a deadline until 22 November 2023 to pay the ransom; otherwise, all compromised files will be published online. The French Alliance College - Antoine de Saint Exupéry de Santiago is an international, multilingual, and diverse school that trains students in a critical spirit and citizens committed to their environment.
It is an establishment open to the world, where every student is called upon to deploy their full potential. It has more than 60 years of history and has two venues: Vitacura and Chamisero. In total, it brings together more than 3,200 students, from pre-school education to the middle quarter.
About LockBit Ransomware-as-a-Service
LockBit is a RaaS that has been active since 2019 and is highly adept at security tool evasion as well as boasting an extremely fast encryption speed. LockBit is noted for multiple means of extortion where the victim may also be asked to pay a ransom for any sensitive information exfiltrated in the attack in addition to paying a ransom for the encryption key. LockBit employs publicly available file-sharing services and a custom tool dubbed Stealbit for data exfiltration.
LockBit was by far the most active attack group in 2022 and continued to be the leading attack group in the first half of 2023. LockBit has demanded ransoms in excess of $50 million and hit the world’s biggest computer chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), with a $70 million ransom demand in July. LockBit continues to innovate their RaaS platform following the release of LockBit 3.0 in June of 2022, and introduced what is considered to be the first iteration of a macOS ransomware variant in April of 2023.
Technical Details of LockBit 3.0
The latest versions incorporate advanced anti-analysis features and are a threat to both Windows and Linux systems. LockBit 3.0 is modular and configured with multiple execution options that direct the behavior of the ransomware on the affected systems. LockBit employs a custom Salsa20 algorithm to encrypt files. LockBit takes advantage of remote desktop protocol (RDP) exploitation for most infections and spreads on the network by way of Group Policy Objects and PsExec using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. LockBit appears to also still be supporting the older LockBit 2.0 variant from 2021, where the encryptor used is LockBit 2.0 but the victim is named on the LockBit 3.0 leak site.
Target and Affiliate Program
LockBit tends to target larger enterprises across any industry vertical with the ability to pay high ransom demands, but also has tended to favor Healthcare organizations. LockBit is a very well-run affiliate program and has a great reputation amongst the affiliate (attacker) community for the maturity of the platform as well as for offering high payouts of as much as 75% of the ransom proceeds.
Recent Ransomware Attacks
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The site’s data is generated based on hosting choices of real-world threat actors, and a handful of other trackers. While sanitization efforts have been taken, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy of the data. Attack updates will be made as source data is reported by reputable sources. By viewing, accessing, or using RRA you acknowledge you are doing so at your own risk.