Qilin attacks Commonwealth Sign Company

Incident Date:

February 4, 2024

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Overview

Title

Qilin attacks Commonwealth Sign Company

Victim

Commonwealth Sign Company

Attacker

Qilin

Location

Louisville, USA

Kentucky, USA

First Reported

February 4, 2024

Commonwealth Sign Falls Victim to Ransomware Attack

Commonwealth Sign fell victim to a ransomware attack by Qilin on 3 February. The attack managed to penetrate the victim’s defenses and steal important data. The victim refused to contact the attackers to negotiate the terms, which resulted in Qilin announcing that it would leak the company’s confidential data publicly.

Introduction to Qilin Ransomware

Qilin (aka Agenda) is a RaaS operation that first emerged in July of 2022 that is written in the Go and Rust programming languages and is capable of targeting Windows and Linux systems. Rust is a secure, cross-platform programming language that offers exceptional performance for concurrent processing, making it easier to evade security controls and develop variants to target multiple OSs.

Qilin’s Attack Methodology

Qilin operators are known to exploit vulnerable applications including Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Each Qilin ransomware attack employs tactics such as altering the filename extensions of encrypted files and terminating specific processes and services. The utilization of Rust as the ransomware's foundation proves particularly effective due to its evasive nature and inherent complexity, allowing for seamless customization across various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and others. Notably, the Qilin ransomware group can generate samples for both Windows and ESXi versions.

Qilin’s Dark Web Presence

Qilin promotes its ransomware on the dark web, utilizing a proprietary DLS (Dedicated Leak Site) that contains distinctive company identifiers and leaked account information, as uncovered by experts from Group-IB Threat Intelligence.

Double Extortion Technique

The operators behind Qilin employ a double extortion technique, whereby they not only encrypt a victim's sensitive data but also exfiltrate it. Subsequently, they demand payment for a decryptor and insist on the non-disclosure of stolen data even after the ransom has been paid. Qilin ransomware features multiple encryption modes, all under the control of the operator.

Recent Ransomware Attacks

The Recent Ransomware Attacks (RRA) site acts as a watchtower, providing you with near real-time ransomware tracking of attacks, groups and their victims. Given threat actors’ overarching, lucrative success so far, ransomware attacks have become the most ubiquitous, and financially and informationally impactful cyber threat to businesses and organizations today.

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.