The LockBit Ransomware Gang's Attack on Prime Retail Services

The LockBit ransomware gang has attacked Prime Retail Services. Prime Retail Services is a construction company based in Flowery Branch, Georgia, USA. It employs 209 people. LockBit posted Prime Retail Services to its data leak site on June 14th, threatening to publish all stolen data by July 4th if the organization fails to pay the ransom.

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.

Evolution of LockBit

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. LockBit is a very well-run affiliate program and has a great reputation amongst the affiliate (attacker) community for the maturity of the platform as well as for offering high payouts of as much as 75% of the attack proceeds.

Extortion Techniques Employed by LockBit

LockBit is known to employ multiple extortion techniques, including data exfiltration, to compel payment.