France’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR) professionals identified details about the tools and tactics used by a ransomware affiliate group, named Lockean. Over the past two years, the cyber group is targeting French companies continuously. Reportedly, at least eight French companies’ suffered data breaches on a large scale. The group steals data and executes malware from multiple ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations.
According to the data, the companies that have been victimized by this group are the transportation logistics firm Gefco, the newspaper Ouest-France and the pharmaceutical groups Fareva and Pierre Fabre, among a few others.
“Based on incidents reported to the ANSSI and their commonalities, investigations were carried out by the Agency to confirm the existence of a single cybercriminal group responsible for these incidents, understand its modus operandi and distinguish its techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs…”
“…First observed in June 2020, this group named Lockean is thought to have affiliated with several Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) including DoppelPaymer, Maze, Prolock, Egregor, and Sodinokibi. Lockean has a propensity to target French entities under a Big Game Hunting rationale), reads the report published by CERT-FR.”
In 2020, Lockean was spotted for the very first time when the group targeted a French manufacturing company and executed DoppelPaymer ransomware on the network. Around June 2020 and March 2021, Lockean compromised at least seven more companies’ networks with various ransomware families including big names like Maze, Egregor, REvil, and ProLock.
In most of the attacks, the hackers gained initial access to the victim network through Qbot/QakBot malware and post-exploitative tool CobaltStrike. Qbot/QakBot is a banking trojan that changed its role to spread other malware into the system, including ransomware strains ProLock, DoppelPaymer, and Egregor, CERT-FR officials said.
The cybercriminal group had used the Emotet distribution service in 2020 and TA551 in 2020 and 2021 to distribute QakBot via phishing email. Additionally, the group used multiple tools for data exfiltration including AdFind, BITSAdmin, and BloodHound, and the RClone.