Medusa Ransomware Attacks Focus On Critical Infrastructure

Uploaded on 2025-03-17 in TECHNOLOGY--Hackers, NEWS-Cybersecurity News, FREE TO VIEW

Known for the sophistication of its operations, the ransomware gang Medusa has been responsible for known attacks on over 300 organisations in the critical infrastructure sectors, including medical, education, legal, insurance, manufacturing and technology operations.

Once hit by a Medusa ransomware attack, victims are told that they must pay a ransom to decrypt their files to prevent them from being released onto the Internet.

This is called as a double-extortion attack, and means that even if the victim organisation has backups and can recover the files that have been encrypted, they still face the threat of having their sensitive data leaked if they refuse to pay the ransom.

Now, a joint cyber security advisory has been published published this attack recently which comes from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), warning that Medusa has been operating since 2021. “Medusa originally operated as a closed ransomware variant, meaning all development and associated operations were controlled by the same group of cyber threat actors... “While Medusa has since progressed to using an affiliate model, important operations such as ransom negotiation are still centrally controlled by the developers,” the advisory says.

“Both Medusa developers and affiliates, referred to as ‘Medusa actors’ in this advisory, employ a double extortion model, where they encrypt victim data and threaten to publicly release exfiltrated data if a ransom is not paid.”

According to the advisory, Medusa developers typically employ initial access brokers on cyber criminal forums to obtain entry into victims’ environments. During the attacks, Medusa actors use a wide range of legitimate software to move laterally, including remote access tools like AnyDesk, Atera, ConnectWise, eHorus, N-able, PDQ Deploy, PDQ Inventory, SimpleHelp and Splashtop. Additionally, the threat actors frequently use Advanced IP Scanner and SoftPerfect Network Scanner to gather information on targeted users, systems and networks.

According to CISA, Medusa conceals itself disguised as legitimate tools CISA typically using living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques to evade detection as well as several PowerShell techniques that feature “increasing complexity.” A key component of some attacks is using vulnerable drivers in what is known as “bring your own vulnerable driver” or BYOVD attacks. The advisory said Medusa actors use BYOVD to kill and even delete endpoint detection and response products.

Medusa activity has increased 42% year-over-year in 2024 and continued rising in January and February.

The researchers say the hackers have extensive use of both legitimate drivers as well as custom-developed malicious tools like AVKill and POORTRY to bypass or disable security software. “BYOVD is a technique that has been increasingly used in ransomware attack chains over the last two years,” the blog post said. “In almost all Medusa attacks, KillAV and associated vulnerable drivers are used in this part of the attack chain to download drivers and disable security software.”

In case a victim refuses to pay the demanded ransom their stolen data may be leaked on Medusa's Dark Web forum and sold to other cybercriminals, risking reputational damage, legal consequences, penalties for non-compliance and consequent financial loss.

CISA urges organisations to report Medusa ransomware incidents to law enforcement and refrain from paying ransoms, as doing so risks encouraging further attacks.

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