Washington DC Police admitted to having suffered a ransomware attack. The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed this attack after the attackers – the Buk Locker gang – disclosed their activity. For now, the ransomware gang has threatened the DC Police to leak the data they stole through this attack. Around the same time, the attackers have made an interesting disclosure of their soon expected departure.
Washington DC Police Suffer Ransomware Attack
Reportedly, Washington DC Police has fallen prey to the new yet notorious Babuk Locker ransomware.
The news remained under the radar until the attackers boastfully posted screenshots of data stolen from DC Police servers.
Sharing the details on the dark web leak site, the Babuk Locker gang claimed to have stolen 250GB of data from the Metropolitan Police. This data includes critical information about the operations, criminal gangs’ members, and other disciplinary records.
As reported by Bleeping Computer, the attackers have threatened the DC Police to contact them within 3 days. Otherwise, the attackers would leak the stolen data online. Here’s what their statement on the leak site reads,
Hello! Even an institution such as DC can be threatened, we have downloaded a sufficient amount of information from your internal networks, and we advise you to contact us as soon as possible, to prevent leakage, if no response is received within 3 days, we will start to contact gangs in order to drain the informants, we will continue to attack the state sector of the usa, fbi csa, we find 0 day before you, even larger attacks await you soon.
After this disclosure, the Metropolitan Police has admitted the attack. They also explained to have involved the FBI in this matter.
We are aware of unauthorized access on our server. While we determine the full impact and continue to review activity, we have engaged the FBI to fully investigate this matter.
Babuk Locker To Shut Down…Too Soon?
For now, it remains unclear how things will turn out in the coming days.
Yet, the attackers have made an interesting announcement soon after this attack. The gang will supposedly shut down the Babuk Locker ransomware. But before leaving, they will open-source the malware code to serve as RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service).
According to the version captured by Recorded Future’s Dmitry Smilyanets, the attackers clearly mentioned DC Police as their last goal.
BABUK #ransomware deleted their farewell post. But @RecordedFuture still remembers! pic.twitter.com/jjSECv3VVh
— ?????? ?????????? (@ddd1ms) April 29, 2021
However, the attackers seemingly put up another version of their farewell message after editing the targets, according to Bleeping Computer.
Nonetheless, Smilyanets confirmed that the attackers later deleted the message permanently.
Whether Babuk Locker departs sooner or later, the attackers have clearly assured that it will survive to form a legacy.
Babuk Locker is a relatively newer ransomware that made it to the news at the beginning of 2021. It started off as a typical Windows ransomware, soon evolving to target Linux and ESXi servers.
According to an Emsisoft analysis, Babuk Locker had a faulty encryption and decryption process that would ruin the data.
Perhaps, that’s why they adopted a double extortion policy of stealing unencrypted files before ransomware encryption.
Since the beginning, Babuk Locker has aimed at various targets, putting up huge ransom demands ranging between $60,000 and $80,000.
At present, it seems that the ransomware gang may conduct a few more attacks before the final departure.
