The BianLian Extortion Gang's Attack on Chu de Rennes

The BianLian extortion gang has attacked Chu de Rennes. "Chu de Rennes" refers to the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes, which translates to the University Hospital Center of Rennes. It is a major healthcare facility located in Rennes, the capital city of the Brittany region in France. The Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes serves as a teaching hospital and medical research center affiliated with the University of Rennes. It plays a critical role in providing medical care, research, and education to the local community and beyond.

BianLian published 300GB of Chu de Rennes’s data on July 29th. BianLian is an infamous cybercriminal organization involved in data extortion. 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.

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. 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.