The MedusaLocker Ransomware Attack on Insulcana Contracting

The MedusaLocker ransomware gang has attacked Insulcana Contracting. Insulcana Contracting is a mechanical insulation contractor that services the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors. It is headquartered in Ontario, Canada. MedusaLocker posted Insulcana Contracting to its data leak site on July 28th but provided no further information.

Introduction to MedusaLocker

Medusa is a RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) that debuted in the summer of 2021 and has evolved into one of the more active RaaS platforms in late 2022. The attackers restart infected machines in safe mode to avoid detection by security software and prevent recovery by deleting local backups, disabling startup recovery options, and deleting shadow copies.

Medusa ramped up attacks in the latter part of 2022 and became one of the more active groups in the first quarter of 2023. Medusa typically demands ransoms in the millions of dollars, which can vary depending on the target organization’s ability to pay.

How Medusa Compromises Networks

The Medusa RaaS platform (not to be confused with the operators of the earlier MedusaLocker ransomware) ransomware typically compromises victim networks through malicious email attachments (macros), torrent websites, or malicious ad libraries. Medusa can terminate over 280 Windows services and processes without command line arguments, and there may be a Linux version as well, but it is unclear at this time.

Target Industries and Extortion Tactics

Medusa targets multiple industry verticals, especially healthcare and pharmaceutical companies and organizations in the public sector. Medusa also employs a double extortion scheme where some data is exfiltrated prior to encryption, and they are not as generous with their affiliate attackers, only offering as much as 60% of the ransom if paid.