Medusa: The Ransomware

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 





Overview

Medusa, also known as MedusaLocker, is a ransomware discovered in 2019. It operates in a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) business model and goes for double extortion tactic stealing the victim's data before encryption. It mainly targets big organizations with high volumes of Personal Identifiable Information (PII), health sector, and educational sectors. Medusa generally gain access via brute-force attacks on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), leaked RDP credentials, or spear-phishing attacks to steal user credentials.

Understanding Medusa

Since its discovery, Medusa have seen drastic changes in its ransomware activities and extortion tactics. They have even launched their dedicated leak site in early 2023, called the Medusa Blog, where they disclose sensitive data of the victims who does not comply with their demands. 

They employ a multi-extortion strategy and offer multiple options to their victims. All the options such as time extension, data deletion, or download of all the data, contain a price tag depending upon the impacted organization.

In the multi-extortion system, Medusa ransomware includes the following points to pressurize their victims into paying the ransom-

  • Price Tag- It is the amount the impacted organization is required to pay for the removal of the data from their site. However, they are always willing to negotiate like the other ransomware threat actors.

  • Countdown- It is the total amount of time an impacted organization have before the availability of their stolen data publicly for download. 

  • Number of Visitors- The number of post visitors is used to pressurize the victims into paying the ransom. 

  • Victim Name & Description- Identifiable information for the compromised organization. 

This group also have integrated links to Telegram and X (previously Twitter) on the Medusa Blog site.

Protection Against Medusa

Following steps might help in protecting a system against such ransomware attacks:
  • Implement strong passwords.
  • Activate Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
  • Simple user account permissions. 
  • Clear unused and outdated user accounts.
  • System configurations to strictly follow all security procedures.
  • Always have system backup in a remote configuration.
  • Have updated cybersecurity solution in place. 

 Conclusion

Medusa ransomware has evolved rapidly since its emergence in 2019. Their operations showcases complex propagation methods, leveraging of system vulnerabilities, and avoiding detection. As such, Medusa stands strong as a significant threat to organizations demanding more proactive and practical defensive strategies. 















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deployment (Part 3)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here To read part 2, please click  here Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) MMA is used across multiple Microsoft solutions and has undergone a few name changes as its features and functionality have evolved. If it is being considered to be used, then following areas should be covered during a Microsoft Sentinel deployment project: Consider the timelines and the strategy for a migration to AMA (Azure Monitor Agent) before the MMA end-of-life.  Consider the central deployment and management methodology for MMA. Determine which endpoints are in scope for deployment as these affect the log ingestion volume significantly.  Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) Organizations with MMA as the main Microsoft Sentinel agent should start planning the migration to AMA as soon as possible to avoid a rushed migration. One of the main advantages of AMA is the ability to control the log collection policy centrally and apply different policies against different...
Read more

Deployment (Part 1)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 2, please click  here To read part 3, please click  here Azure Resources Microsoft Sentinel needs following resources to be created: Subscription (if a dedicated subscription(s) will be used) Resource group(s) Log Analytics workspace(s) Automation rules/playbook Alert rules Workbooks Microsoft Sentinel offers hundreds of alert rules, workbooks, and automation playbook templates along with hunting scripts. The templates can be used to activate/deploy schedule alerts, create customized dashboards, create automation playbooks and perform threat-hunting activities. Generally, once deployed, the resources created have to be adjusted to match the existing environment, configure local credentials, etc. Methods of deployment: Manual- Administrator can manually configures the Microsoft Sentinel resources with the help of Azure portal. Any manual process has the inherent risks of human operator error, lack of compliance with potential change control procedures, and u...
Read more

Project Resourcing (Part 2)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here Engineering - SIEM The SIEM engineers configures Microsoft Sentinel, including Log Analytics, Logic Apps, workbooks, and playbooks. They are also responsible for the following high-level tasks: Initial configuration of Azure tenant, including provisioning required resources, assigning access roles, and configuring workspace parameters like log retention, resource tagging, and blueprints.  Deployment and configuration of syslog/CEF log collection agents in appropriate locations to collect logs from on-premises devices. Generally, it will be joint effort of both system engineer and SIEM engineer, involving configuration and potential troubleshooting.  Working with system owners to enable log forwarding and configuring any required parsing of log data in Log Analytics.  Working with security operations to create and deploy KQL analytic rules to offer detections for SOC/Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSRIT) use. Tuning...
Read more