Ragnar Ransomware Gang Tries to Scare Victims

The Ragnar ransomware gang, one of the relatively big threat actors in the ransomware landscape, has published a strange post on its dark web portal. The gang seems to be trying to use more cheap social engineering tricks to scare its victims into cooperating and paying up ransom.

Ragnar's post explains that, according to the criminal organization behind the ransomware, contacting the FBI or other respective authorities will only make matters worse for the victim. The gang is now threatening to leak stolen files from any victim who attempts to contact law enforcement.

The post on Ragnar's website explains, in very poor English spelling and grammar, that the FBI or third-party security consultants called in to assist with ransomware recovery are "not interested in commercial success of their clients of in safety of theirs private data" (sic).

Ragnar seem to be disgruntled and angry because they are finding themselves dealing with professional negotiators increasingly more often and would obviously rather just choose the easy way out and scare their victims into cooperation.

This tactic does not seem too unusual for a band of criminals who are primarily using fear and intimidation to scare their victims. What's more, Ragnar's post mockingly calls ransomware victims "clients", as though paying up ransom for your files and network functionality is some sort of business transaction with a partner.

Ragnar ransomware has seen a lot of action in 2020, with at least four separate high-profile attacks in the last year and another attack on memory maker ADATA in the summer of 2021. The group attracted sufficient attention for the FBI to publish a formal alert concerning the gang and its ransomware in late 2020.

Of course, paying up ransom to criminals is never a great choice, no matter how they try to intimidate their victims. At the end of the day, you are not dealing with a business partner, no matter how much Ragnar want to paint their outfit as such, you are dealing with a gang of hardened criminals. Neither receiving a decryption key, nor the gang keeping their promise not to leak or re-sell sensitive information are guaranteed.

Statistics published in a survey conducted by Threatpost actually show that the vast majority of ransomware victims - around 80% of them - actually never pay ransom, no matter what threats and social engineering tricks the ransomware gangs come up with.

September 8, 2021
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