The BianLian Ransomware Gang's Latest Attack

The BianLian ransomware gang has allegedly attacked Chadwick, Washington, Moriarty, Elmore & Bunn. BianLian ransomware posted Chadwick, Washington, Moriarty, Elmore & Bunn's details to its data leak site on June 3rd, claiming to have stolen 350GB of data, including that of company legal cases, files from management PCs, SQL databases, and post archives. Chadwick, Washington, Moriarty, Elmore & Bunn is a law firm headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.

Background on BianLian

BianLian is an infamous cybercriminal organization involved in the development and deployment of ransomware. Since June 2022, they have targeted various critical infrastructure sectors in the United States. Additionally, they have extended their attacks to include Australian critical infrastructure sectors, as well as professional services and property development domains.

Method of Attack

To gain unauthorized access to their victims' systems, the group exploits valid Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials. They employ open-source tools and command-line scripts to carry out reconnaissance and gather credentials. Victim data is then extracted using File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Rclone, or Mega.

Extortion Tactics

Subsequently, the BianLian group proceeds to extort money from their victims by threatening to expose the obtained data unless a payment is made. Initially, the group utilized a double-extortion approach, which involved encrypting victims' systems after data exfiltration. However, starting around January 2023, they primarily focused on data exfiltration-based extortion.