Singaporean authorities alert businesses to Bitcoin ransomware risk
Akira ransomware, responsible for stealing $42 million from over 250 organizations across North America, Europe and Australia in just a year, is now targeting businesses in Singapore. In response, Singaporean authorities have issued a joint advisory warning local businesses about the increasing threat posed by a variant of this ransomware.
Alert follows complaints
The alert follows multiple complaints from victims, prompting agencies like the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) to take action. These agencies emphasize the urgency of recognizing and combating this threat.
How Akira operates
Akira affiliates employ various techniques to infiltrate a victim's network. These include exploiting known vulernabilities. For example, that could mean the targeting of services like Cisco virtual private networks (VPNs) that have been configured without multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Another approach that the ransomware incorporates is attacking external-facing services such as the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) via brute force. Social engineering is another tool within its repertoire. This involves tricking victims into downloading malicious software or entering credentials on phishing websites.
There is a marketplace for compromised credentials in the dark web. Akira also relies on such data, acquiring it from access brokers who sell network access.
Once inside a network, Akira affiliates often create new domain accounts to maintain persistent access, even after reboots. They use numerous tools to steal user credentials, escalate privileges and spread throughout the network.
Detection and prevention measures
The Singaporean advisory outlines several strategies for detecting, deterring and neutralizing Akira attacks. Authorities strongly advise against paying ransoms, on the basis that doing so does not guarantee data recovery or prevent future attacks.
Authorities also warn that paying ransoms can encourage further attacks. The FBI has noted that Akira operators do not contact victims. Instead, they expect victims to initiate contact.
Payment in Bitcoin
The advisory outlines how Bitcoin is implicated in the ransomware scam. It states:
”Ransom payments are requested in Bitcoin, which are directed to cryptocurrency wallet addresses specified by the affiliates. The TOR site (.onion) where victims contact the affiliates, contains stolen information and a list of the affected organisations.”
It’s not the first time that Singaporean authorities have issued warnings that have implicated Bitcoin and crypto. In January, the CSA and SPF, in a joint advisory, suggested that people should use hardware wallets in an effort to guard against crypto-related malware and phishing attacks.
A number of weeks prior to that, Singapore’s former Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, took to Facebook to issue a warning with regard to a crypto scam that involved the use of deceptive content generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
Mitigation techniques
Businesses are being urged by the authorities to adopt best practices to mitigate the Akira ransomware threat. They suggest the implementation of a recovery plan alongside the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) in order to secure data and the access to that data.
They also suggest filtering network traffic as it helps in identifying and blocking malicious activities. Meanwhile, disabling unused ports and hyperlinks curbs the risk further as it reduces the attack surface. Lastly, the authorities suggested the use of system-wide encryption to protect data even if it is accessed by unauthorized entities.
