INC Ransom Gang Targets PSEC Church

The INC Ransom ransomware gang has allegedly attacked PSEC Church. No further information has been disclosed. Pennsylvania Southeast Conference is the United Church of Christ (UCC) in southeastern Pennsylvania. It has over 160 congregations, is open and welcoming to all people, and is a church committed to justice, equality, healing, and peace.

About INC Ransom

INC Ransom was first observed in the summer of 2023, and it is unclear if they maintain a RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) affiliate operation or are a closed group. INC uses common TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures), such as leveraging compromised RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) credentials to gain access and move laterally in a targeted environment.

INC has been observed delivering ransomware using legitimate tools like WMIC and PSEXEC and using other Living-off-the-Land (LOTL) techniques, abusing applications including MSPaint, WordPad, NotePad, MS Internet Explorer, MS Windows Explorer, and AnyDesk for lateral movement. INC has also been observed abusing tools like Esentutl for reconnaissance and MegaSync for data exfiltration.

INC is written in C++ and uses AES-128 in CTR mode to encrypt files, and it also has a Linux version. It is unclear if INC employs any advanced security tool evasion techniques, and there are indications that they may attempt to delete Volume Shadow Copies (VSS) to hinder encryption rollback attempts.

Target Industries and Extortion Practices

INC targets a wide array of industries, including manufacturing, retail, IT, hospitality, pharma, construction, and the public sector. INC practices double extortion and maintains a leak site for double extortion, threatening to expose the victim. INC has made good on threats to expose sensitive data if a target does not pay the ransom demand.