The Lockbit Ransomware Attack on YKK

The Lockbit ransomware gang has allegedly attacked YKK. YKK Group is the world’s largest zipper manufacturer and is based in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1934 and employs more than 44,000 people around the world. YKK boasts 106 affiliated companies across 72 countries and reported an annual turnover of 893,226 million yen in 2022. Lockbit uploaded YKK’s details to its data leak site on June 2nd. While it’s unclear how much data Lockbit has exfiltrated, the ransomware gang set a 14-day deadline for YKK to pay the ransom. YKK has neither confirmed nor denied the attack.

LockBit's Modus Operandi

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. LockBit is considered to have been the most active attack group in 2022 as other high-profile groups became less active and demanded ransoms of more than $50 million. LockBit tends to target larger enterprises across any industry vertical with the ability to pay high ransom demands but also tends to favor Healthcare targets.