WEBINAR | A Deep-Dive into 2023 Cyber Threats
Reduce Alert Noise and False Positives
Boost your team's productivity by cutting down alert noise and false positives.
Automate Security Operations
Boost efficiency, reduce burnout, and better manage risk through automation.
Dark Web Monitoring
Online protection tuned to the need of your business.
Maximize Existing Security Investments
Improve efficiencies from existing investments in security tools.
Beyond MDR
Move your security operations beyond the limitations of MDR.
Secure with Microsoft 365 E5
Boost the power of Microsoft 365 E5 security.
Secure Multi-Cloud Environments
Improve cloud security and overcome complexity across multi-cloud environments.
Secure Mergers and Acquisitions
Control cyber risk for business acquisitions and dispersed business units.
Operational Technology
Solve security operations challenges affecting critical operational technology (OT) infrastructure.
Force-Multiply Your Security Operations
Whether you’re just starting your security journey, need to up your game, or you’re not happy with an existing service, we can help you to achieve your security goals.
Detection Investigation Response
Modernize Detection, Investigation, Response with a Security Operations Platform.
Threat Hunting
Locate and eliminate lurking threats with ReliaQuest GreyMatter
Threat Intelligence
Find cyber threats that have evaded your defenses.
Model Index
Security metrics to manage and improve security operations.
Breach and Attack Simulation
GreyMatter Verify is ReliaQuest’s automated breach and attack simulation capability.
Digital Risk Protection
Continuous monitoring of open, deep, and dark web sources to identify threats.
Phishing Analyzer
GreyMatter Phishing Analyzer removes the abuse mailbox management by automating the DIR process for you.
Integration Partners
The GreyMatter cloud-native Open XDR platform integrates with a fast-growing number of market-leading technologies.
Unify and Optimize Your Security Operations
ReliaQuest GreyMatter is a security operations platform built on an open XDR architecture and designed to help security teams increase visibility, reduce complexity, and manage risk across their security tools, including on-premises, clouds, networks, and endpoints.
Blog
Company Blog
Case Studies
Brands of the world trust ReliaQuest to achieve their security goals.
Data Sheets
Learn how to achieve your security outcomes faster with ReliaQuest GreyMatter.
eBooks
The latest security trends and perspectives to help inform your security operations.
Industry Guides and Reports
The latest security research and industry reports.
Podcasts
Catch up on the latest cybersecurity podcasts, and mindset moments from our very own mental performance coaches.
Solution Briefs
A deep dive on how ReliaQuest GreyMatter addresses security challenges.
White Papers
The latest white papers focused on security operations strategy, technology & insight.
Videos
Current and future SOC trends presented by our security experts.
Events & Webinars
Explore all upcoming company events, in-person and on-demand webinars
ReliaQuest ResourceCenter
From prevention techniques to emerging security trends, our comprehensive library can arm you with the tools you need to improve your security posture.
Threat Research
Get the latest threat analysis from the ReliaQuest Threat Research Team. ReliaQuest ShadowTalk Weekly podcast featuring discussions on the latest cybersecurity news and threat research.
Shadow Talk
ReliaQuest's ShadowTalk is a weekly podcast featuring discussions on the latest cybersecurity news and threat research. ShadowTalk's hosts come from threat intelligence, threat hunting, security research, and leadership backgrounds providing practical perspectives on the week's top cybersecurity stories.
April 25, 2024
About ReliaQuest
We bring our best attitude, energy and effort to everything we do, every day, to make security possible.
Leadership
Security is a team sport.
No Show Dogs Podcast
Mental Performance Coaches Derin McMains and Dr. Nicole Detling interview world-class performers across multiple industries.
Make It Possible
Make It Possible reflects our focus on bringing cybersecurity awareness to our communities and enabling the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Careers
Join our world-class team.
Press and Media Coverage
ReliaQuest newsroom covering the latest press release and media coverage.
Become a Channel Partner
When you partner with ReliaQuest, you help deliver world-class cybersecurity solutions.
Contact Us
How can we help you?
A Mindset Like No Other in the Industry
Many companies tout their cultures; at ReliaQuest, we share a mindset. We focus on four values every day to make security possible: being accountable, helpful, adaptable, and focused. These values drive development of our platform, relationships with our customers and partners, and further the ReliaQuest promise of security confidence across our customers and our own teams.
More results...
The ransomware group REvil (aka Sodinokibi) has been one of the most significant characters in the evolving ransomware drama that has been playing out over the past few years. The REvil ransomware variant was first detected in April 2019, and although the group initially focused on targeting Asia-based entities, the ransomware operators and associated affiliates are now indiscriminate in their choice of victim and sector. Nowadays, REvil’s bold and brazen attacks, such as targeting the Kaseya desktop management software and the meat processing organization JBS, mean that the group is rarely out of the news. REvil has experienced its fair share of controversy over the years, with everything from accusations of failing to pay those involved in its partnership program to claims that it effectively cut out affiliates and shared decryption keys with victims. We’ve also seen the group disappear without a trace, only to reemerge a few months later and carry on like nothing has happened.
The latest development in REvil’s story involves a 17 Oct 2021 post from an alleged representative of the REvil (aka Sodinokibi) ransomware group on the prominent Russian-language cybercriminal forum XSS. The user explained that REvil went offline at the beginning of July 2021 after the group’s former forum representative disappeared without explanation. The group later resumed work, assuming that this forum representative had died. However, on 17 Oct 2021 an unknown individual accessed parts of the backend of REvil website’s landing page and blog, leading the new forum representative to conclude that a third party has access to website backups and Onion service keys. It was unclear from the forum content whether the group was considering the possibility that this unknown third party was in fact the former forum representative, very much alive and kicking. The representative also confirmed that REvil’s servers showed no sign of compromise. They advised existing affiliate program participants to contact them via Tox to obtain keys for their existing ransomware campaigns, then announced that the group would now be going “offline”.
The forum representative subsequently added more posts to the thread with further updates about the situation. They confirmed that the sites’ admin panels had not been hacked, that REvil’s domains had been “regenerated”, and that the group was now awaiting for the old domains to be defaced. The representative later alleged that they had been personally targeted during the attack, claiming that the unknown third party had deleted the path to the representative’s “hidden service in the torrc file”, while other group members’ hidden services remained unaffected. In response to another user’s question about who would work with REvil after this latest series of problems, the representative replied, “Judging by everything, I’ll be working on my own”.
Reaction to the news from other forum members ranged from largely unsympathetic to bordering on conspiracy theory. The main area of debate was whether the group would rebrand for a third time, with many questioning whether the cybercriminal community would still trust REvil-related schemes. Opinion appeared split on whether REvil’s reputation would ensure the group’s considered success, with many pointing out that all publicity is good publicity, and predicting that the promise of great profits would still entice affiliates to work with the group in the future. One theory doing the rounds posited that a disgruntled former team member, combined with poor password hygiene, could have resulted in the attack. Many users questioned the fact that this topic was being discussed on the site at all, pointing to XSS’s May 2021 ban on ransomware-related content.
The XSS representative for the LockBit ransomware group claimed to have predicted this turn of events, providing links to their “prophetic” forum posts. They questioned the REvil representative’s intention to leave the forum, opining “if the domains have been hijacked, this is 100% proof that someone had a root on the server, which means that your database has been leaked too”. The LockBit representative even put forward the idea the new REvil forum account may in fact be operated by law enforcement.
What’s next in REvil’s ongoing tale is hard to predict, but it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of the group. The tone and wording of the REvil representative’s forum posts suggested that the group’s disappearance from the forum and halting of operations is a temporary pause, rather than a permanent move. History may well repeat itself, and we could see the group return unexpectedly in the same guise or with a different name. Yes, there are indications that REvil’s incarnations may be becoming marginally less effective each time – we recently saw the group advertising for affiliates on a 90/10 profit-splitting basis, which is more than the group has shared in previous years. Despite this, and the many controversies that REvil has been involved in that could have eroded all trust in and willingness to cooperate with the group, it seems that the group’s infamy and the promise of high profits are simply too much of a lure for many cybercriminals, who have returned to work with the group time and time again.