LockBit Ransomware Gang Targets Kuwait's Ministry of Commerce and Industry

The LockBit ransomware gang has attacked the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) of Kuwait. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) of Kuwait is a government ministry responsible for overseeing and regulating various aspects of the country's commerce, trade, industry, and investment. Its primary objective is to promote economic growth, facilitate business activities, and ensure fair trade practices in Kuwait.

LockBit posted the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) of Kuwait on February 27th, threatening to publish all stolen data by March 16th if the organization fails to respond. LockBit never published the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) of Kuwait's data, suggesting the organization paid the ransom.

LockBit's Operations and Evolution

LockBit has been active since 2019 and is enabled with security tool evasion capabilities and an extremely fast encryption speed. LockBit is noted for using a triple extortion model where the victim may also be asked to purchase their sensitive information in addition to paying the ransom demand for decrypting systems.

The group continues to improve its attack platform and introduced LockBit in June of 2022, which bore some similarities to the BlackMatter ransomware. The latest version incorporates advanced anti-analysis features and is a threat to both Windows and Linux systems.

LockBit employs a Base64-encoded hash and an RSA public key in its configuration and hashes it with MD5. LockBit also created its own bug bounty program.