The Snatch Ransomware Gang's Attack on Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy

The Snatch ransomware gang has attacked Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy. Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy is part of a network of independent public charter schools that provide world-class educational services to address the unique needs of each student. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Snatch posted Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy to its data leak site on October 10th but provided no further details.

Background of Snatch Ransomware

Snatch is a RaaS first emerged way back in 2018 but did not become significantly active until 2021. Snatch can evade security tools and deletes Volume Shadow Copies to prevent rollbacks and any local Windows backups to thwart recovery. There has also been a Linux version observed. Snatch attack volume has been modest compared to leading ransomware operators but is on pace to increase about 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 levels.

Ransom Demands and Technical Details

Snatch ransom demands are relatively low compared to leading ransomware operators, ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. Snatch is written in Go and is somewhat unique in that the ransomware reboots in safe mode to make sure the security tools are not running. Persistence and privilege escalation are not byproducts of the reboot. Snatch abuses legitimate tools like Process Hacker, Uninstaller, IObit, BCDEDIT, PowerTool, and PsExec. Snatch deletes Volume Shadow Copies to prevent encryption rollbacks.

Targeting and Affiliate Structure

Snatch targeting varies widely based on their affiliates' preferences. Snatch is one of the more traditional RaaS platforms, where most of the targeting and attack sequence structure is left to the individual affiliates, including whether to exfiltrate data for double extortion.