Snatch attacks Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy
Incident Date:
October 10, 2023
Overview
Title
Snatch attacks Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy
Victim
Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy
Attacker
Snatch
Location
First Reported
October 10, 2023
The Snatch Ransomware Gang's Attack on Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy
The Snatch ransomware gang has attacked Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy. Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy is part of a network of independent public charter schools that provide world-class educational services to address the unique needs of each student. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Snatch posted Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy to its data leak site on October 10th but provided no further details.
Background of Snatch Ransomware
Snatch is a RaaS first emerged way back in 2018 but did not become significantly active until 2021. Snatch can evade security tools and deletes Volume Shadow Copies to prevent rollbacks and any local Windows backups to thwart recovery. There has also been a Linux version observed. Snatch attack volume has been modest compared to leading ransomware operators but is on pace to increase about 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 levels.
Ransom Demands and Technical Details
Snatch ransom demands are relatively low compared to leading ransomware operators, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. Snatch is written in Go and is somewhat unique in that the ransomware reboots in safe mode to make sure the security tools are not running. Persistence and privilege escalation are not byproducts of the reboot. Snatch abuses legitimate tools like Process Hacker, Uninstaller, IObit, BCDEDIT, PowerTool, and PsExec. Snatch deletes Volume Shadow Copies to prevent encryption rollbacks.
Targeting and Affiliate Structure
Snatch targeting varies widely based on their affiliates' preferences. Snatch is one of the more traditional RaaS platforms, where most of the targeting and attack sequence structure is left to the individual affiliates, including whether to exfiltrate data for double extortion.
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.