US Criminal Court hit by Conti ransomware; critical data at risk

Conti ransomware operators attacked the Fourth District Court of Louisiana and posted proof of attack on the Dark Web.
US Criminal Court hit by Conti ransomware; critical data at risk

Conti ransomware operators attacked the Fourth District Court of Louisiana and posted proof of attack on their Dark Web site accessible through the Tor browser.

A US criminal court has become the victim of Conti ransomware strain, operated by a hacking group of the same name. The hackers have also published several court documents online.

Reportedly, the Fourth District Court of Louisiana’s website was targeted in the attack. After successfully stealing the court documents related to witnesses, jurors, and defendant pleas, the hackers posted proof of the hack attack on its Dark Web page.

US Criminal Court hit by Conti ransomware; critical data at risk
Screenshot from the website operated by Conti ransomware operators (Image: CBR)

Emsisoft’s threat analyst, Brett Callow told CBR that the Conti group is responsible for this attack. Callow noted that this group could be responsible for creating Ryuk, which means they are experienced cybercriminals and have a lengthy track record of attacking public sector organizations. 

 

At the time of publishing this article, the Court’s website was offline.

Previous victims of Ryuk ransomware

It is worth noting that earlier this year, Florida’s Stuart Police Department computers were also hit by Ryuk ransomware. The attack caused Police to lose crucial evidence resulting in six suspects (alleged drug dealers) to walk free.

Furthermore, researchers believe that the attack against a German dealership of Volkswagen Group also involved the Conti ransomware group. In that particular incident, the attackers comprised the company’s service points’ systems and stole thousands of invoices, which they are gradually posting it on their data leaks portal. The hackers stole a total of 8,325 invoices in PDF format.

US Criminal Court hit by Conti ransomware; critical data at risk
Stolen PDF files (Image credit: Zataz)

Full list of victims of Conti ransomware attack (72)

Neel Veterinary Hospital
Adam Kutner Cares
BostonCoach
Horizon Controls
Chris-Leef General Agency, Inc
Star-Tam, Inc.
Smith & McGhee, PC
CB Masonry
LindFast Solutions Group
4th Judicial District Court
Allfasteners
ThyssenKrupp Holding
New Light Christian Christian Center
News Réfrigération Noël
Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Beler Holdings Inc
CCB Packaging Inc
Pilkington Commercial Co., Inc.
PanReac AppliChem ITW Reagents Division
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Community
News a1fiberglass.com
OCA Global
M and M Merchandisers
Adams County Memorial Hospital
VUTEQ CORPORATION, LTD.
Soloptical
Sandream Impact LLC
Marie Claire Boutiques
Murray Engineering PTY Ltd & FSI Architecture PC
JohnBear
Bruckner Truck Sales Inc
The Dobco Group
Motta S.p.A
Gestoria Auto Gestion
Waldhoff gmbh Co
Quality Resource Group 
City of Rocky Mount
Romeo Engineering Inc
Naman Howell Smith; Lee, PLLC
Oil Company Greenville SC & the Upstate - Echols Oil Company, Inc
Carbon Power and Light
Filtration Group
Pontotoc County Sheriff’s Office
The Volkswagen Group
Ventura Orthopedics
National Wire Cable Corporation
Precision Tandems Inc
Aigües de Terrassa
M3P Directional Services
Visual Impressions
Temgroupinc
Peugeot Motocycles
Westland Horticulture
LH EVANS
VIP Computers LLC
Florida Chamber of Commerce
LF ILLUMINATION LLC
LHC Group Inc
GAR Equipment
Hershey Equipment Co Inc
Sice Inc
Image one
electric gas industries association inc
Hms Insurance Associates, Inc
Marriott international inc
Landmark resort hotel beach
Yorkcontainer
Joliet Park District
McCloskey Mechanical Contractors
Master Kid Inc
Axxess International Inc

How Conti ransomware functions

Conti is a crypto-malware, discovered first in December 2019. Since then, it has become excessively common and mainly targets corporations and public sector institutions. It laterally spreads across the targeted network using various techniques to acquire domain admin credentials.

 

After gaining the necessary privileges, it deploys the ransomware and encrypts the devices attached to the network. It uses a range of techniques to evade security measures and can execute around 160 individual commands. Around 146 of these commands focus on blocking several Windows services.

Conti group is believed to be the Ryuk group’s successor and is operating as a private RaaS (Ransomware as a Service). According to Advance Intel’s Vitali Kremez, this new group boasts of a team of experienced hackers who receive a generous share from the ransom amount. Hence, there is a sudden increase in Conti infections.

Kremez stated that Conti ransomware is based on Ryuk’s code and uses the same ransom note template as Ryuk’s earlier versions. Moreover, Conti is using similar TrickBot infrastructure as Ryuk used in its ransomware attacks.

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