Cyber security company Entrust became the victim of a ransomware attack this summer, with ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operator LockBit 3.0 claiming responsibility for the attack. But they then became a target themselves...

It is suspected that LockBit 3.0's attack antagonised a response from an Entrust supporter who retaliated with denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against the ransomware group’s leak site.

At present, LockBit 3.0 are the most widespread ransomware group in the world and began to leak Entrust’s data on Friday, August 19. The leak was promptly followed by the LockBit 3.0 leak site suffering a successful DoS attack that took their site offline.

The origin of the attack is still unknown, with the current rumours suggesting the retaliation was from Entrust, another threat group or law enforcement agencies.

This retaliation is not entirely unprecedented. LockBit 3.0 already have DDoS protection on their leak site and are likely familiar with attracting angry reactions due to the nature of their activities.

The firm have also been subjected to similar attacks from cybersecurity firm Accenture in 2021.

As retaliation to this attack, LockBit 3.0 are seeking to upload Entrust’s data to a torrent which would ensure the data will survive such attacks and always be available until the group chooses otherwise.

Multiple cyber security research groups have commented that if organisations begin to set precedence of retaliating in such a manner against ransomware operators, scenarios could develop dangerously.

However, these comments are caveated with the notion that it is likely the identity of who carried out the attacks may never be known.

Reporting

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