The RA Group Ransomware Attack on Wealth Enhancement Group

The RA Group ransomware gang has attacked the Wealth Enhancement Group. Wealth Enhancement Group is a financial advisory firm that offers comprehensive wealth management services to individuals, families, and businesses. The company provides financial planning, investment management, retirement planning, estate planning, tax strategies, and other financial services to help clients achieve their financial goals. RA Group posted the Wealth Enhancement Group to its data leak site on July 30th but provided no further details.

Introduction to RA Group

Researchers first identified the RA Group on April 22nd, 2023, when it launched its data leak site. RA Group uses an encryptor based on Babuk's (another ransomware gang) leaked source code. The group primarily targets US manufacturing, pharmaceutical, insurance, and wealth management firms. RA Group uses double extortion tactics.

Unique Tactics of RA Group

The distinctive trait of the RA Group involves crafting a unique ransom note tailored for the specific organization under attack, and the malware's executable file is also named after the victim. The ransomware targets all logical drives on the victim's computer and network shares, seeking to encrypt specific folders. Notably, directories linked to the Windows system, boot files, Program Files, and similar components are excluded from encryption. This strategy is employed to prevent rendering the victim's system completely unusable, thereby reducing the likelihood of receiving a ransom payment.

Encryption Methodology

The encryptor used by the RA Group employs intermittent encryption. This method alternates between encrypting and not encrypting segments of a file, which accelerates the encryption process. However, this approach carries risks as it permits partial data recovery from files. The encryptor utilizes curve25519 and eSTREAM cipher hc-128 algorithms. The files that undergo encryption have the ".GAGUP" extension added to their filenames. Furthermore, any volume shadow copies and contents in the Recycle Bin are purged to hinder data restoration.