blackbasta

Black Basta is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in April 2022 and has rapidly established itself as a significant threat actor, compromising over 500 organizations globally within its first two years of operation. The group is suspected to have ties to Russia-based cybercriminal networks and operates as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, recruiting affiliates to conduct attacks while the core group maintains the ransomware infrastructure and negotiates with victims. Black Basta primarily gains initial access through phishing campaigns, exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, and compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials, then deploys custom tools and living-off-the-land techniques to move laterally through networks before deploying their ransomware payload that uses ChaCha20 encryption. The group employs double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encryption and threatening to publish it on their leak site if ransom demands are not met. Notable campaigns include attacks on major manufacturing companies, healthcare organizations, and critical infrastructure entities primarily across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Italy, with the group showing particular focus on business services, manufacturing, technology, agriculture and food production, and transportation/logistics sectors. As of 2024, Black Basta remains active and continues to evolve its tactics, techniques, and procedures while maintaining a steady pace of victim recruitment and ransom collection operations.