• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

 | 

Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

 | 

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

 | 

Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

 | 

U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

IT Worker arrested for selling access in $100M PIX cyber heist

 | 

New Batavia spyware targets Russian industrial enterprises

 | 

Taiwan flags security risks in popular Chinese apps after official probe

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Google Chromium V8 flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Hunters International ransomware gang shuts down and offers free decryption keys to all victims

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 52

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 531 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

North Korea-linked threat actors spread macOS NimDoor malware via fake Zoom updates

 | 

Critical Sudo bugs expose major Linux distros to local Root exploits

 | 

Google fined $314M for misusing idle Android users' data

 | 

A flaw in Catwatchful spyware exposed logins of +62,000 users

 | 

China-linked group Houken hit French organizations using zero-days

 | 

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Malware
  • Prometheus and Grief – two new emerging ransomware gangs targeting enterprises. Mexican Government data is published for sale.

Prometheus and Grief – two new emerging ransomware gangs targeting enterprises. Mexican Government data is published for sale.

Pierluigi Paganini June 01, 2021

“Prometheus” and “Grief” – a multi-billion dollar ransomware market obtained two new emerging players.

In today’s world, information and data means money and the people that are stealing the information have now reached new levels of sophistication. The number of cases reported has exploded in the last few years and continue to grow rapidly.  

Prometheus is a new emerging ransomware group extorting enterprises in various verticals across the globe. Just recently, the group has published a stolen data allegedly belonging to the Mexican Government which still remains available for sale today, and possibly becoming the first cybercriminal group that has touched a major state in Latin America on such a level. 

According to Resecurity, a cybersecurity company out of Los Angeles, the leaked data has been presumably stolen from multiple e-mail accounts in the result of ATO/BEC and compromise of network resources belonging to several Mexican government agencies. It is hard to determine sensitivity and the end impact in the result of such leaks, but it is one of the elements of an extortion game used by the bad actors. Mexico is the major trading partner of the United States, the second-largest economy in Latin America and the 17th-largest exporter in the world. The number of cyber attacks in the region is significantly growing. In 2020, Mexico was one of the countries with the most cyber attacks in Latin America.

For today, Prometheus has published data from 27 victims and it looks like just the start of their “career”. The victims also include Ghana National Gas, Tulsa Cardiovascular Center of Excellence (Oklahoma, USA), Hotel Nyack (New York, USA) and enterprises in France, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, Brazil, Malaysia and UAE.   

On their updated logo, the group illustrated ties to another notorious underground ransomware group – REvil. 

Prometheus

While REVil actors haven’t confirmed any direct relationships with the new group and such link remains unclear. It is possible the group could use the REVil ransomware and be one of their affiliates working independently. Interestingly, close to a half of all affected victims by Prometheus – paid ransom payment or their data has been sold to other parties interested in it. 

According to Resecurity, at the early stage of activity the group leveraged Sonar, a secure data transfer tool deployed in Tor network providing API (http://sonarmsniko2lvfu.onion/?a=docs-api).

Prometheus
Prometheus

For that time, the group had a different branding and called themselves – Prometheus Group: 

Prometheus

Later, the group switched to an automated ticket-based system where the victim may provide the ID and submit payment in BTC or XMR cryptocurrency for further decryption process automatically.   

Prometheus

SQL-injection vulnerability on “Prometheus” leak site in TOR allowed to reveal the e-mail address of the operator. Later, the vulnerability got spotted and patched by threat actors. 

Interestingly, some of the samples related to Prometheus or Prom (alternative name) activity are detectable as Thanos ransomware by major AV engines. Thanos ransomware (a.k.a. Hakbit ransomware) has been developed by Nosophoros, an underground actor providing it for sale on several Dark Web communities. He has also advertised Jigsaw ransomware and collaborated with multiple actors selling compromised RDP and VPN access to various networks including drumrlu as confirmed by Resecurity and KELA who released a comprehensive report about the activity of underground initial access brokers in Dark Web.

Prometheus

The Prom virus was originally discovered by virus analyst xiaopao from Qihoo 360, and belongs to the Hakbit ransomware family.  Source: https://howtofix.guide/prom-virus/

#Ransomware
ext:PROM[prometheushelp@mail.ch]
mail:
prometheushelp@mail.ch
prometheushelp@airmail.cc
Prometheus.help@protonmail.ch
url:https://t.co/MW0WyzOqsF
sample:dd4eb8aa3371b7fd821a7a9730c924cf@Amigo_A_ @fbgwls245 @demonslay335 pic.twitter.com/fFWFoyCgF1

— xiaopao (@Kangxiaopao) March 17, 2021

Grief is a lesser-known ransomware group, which claims to have data stolen from 5 organizations including 1 in Mexico. Interestingly, the Grief WEB-site in the TOR network has an “anti-crawl” protection preventing cybersecurity researchers from automated indexing of their content by various cyber threat intelligence platforms and their bots. 

On their landing page, there is a catchy reference to GDPR regulations: “The GDPR at Article 33 requires that, in the event of a personal data breach, data controllers should notify the appropriate supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it.” 

Prometheus

It is obvious the actors are trying to motivate victims to pay them sooner rather than later to prevent possible issues with European regulators which is one of the tactics of extortion. The GDPR allows the EU’s Data Protection Authorities to issue fines of up to €20 million ($24.1 million) or 4% of annual global turnover (whichever is higher), which will be definitely a higher price compared to a possible ransom payment to an underground actor. 

The most recent victims added just a couple  days ago include networks of Mobile County, Alabama (USA) and Comune di Porto Sant’Elpidio (Italy).

Prometheus
Prometheus

“Ransomware remains one of the fastest-growing issues affecting multiple industries globally. Threat actors are practising ‘hack-and-leak’ operations more and more often understanding how divasting the risk of a data breach can be for the enterprises. It is becoming a trend and a key method of extortion. Some actors design various landing pages in TOR to blur attribution acting as new groups. In fact, they are tightly interconnected with other well-established players in the underground.” – said Saraj Pant, a cyber threat intelligence analyst with Resecurity, Inc. 

In 2020, it estimates $350 million in ransom was paid to attackers – a more than 300 percent increase over the previous year – with an average payment of over $300,000. 

According to expert statistics, the greatest number of victims in 2020 by industry were in manufacturing, professional and legal services, and construction. Manufacturing, education businesses and healthcare specifically experienced significant increases, especially, during the COVID-19 pandemic when the enterprises almost fully switched to remote mode of work leaving a lot of security gaps used by threat actors.  

The Institute for Security and Technology-coordinated Ransomware Task Force calls for viewing ransomware as far more than just financial crime and making combating it a global priority.

About the author: Saraj Pant, cyber threat intelligence analyst with Resecurity, Inc.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Prometheus)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 09, 2025
Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 09, 2025
Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Iranian group Pay2Key.I2P ramps Up ransomware attacks against Israel and US with incentives for affiliates

    Malware / July 09, 2025

    Hackers weaponize Shellter red teaming tool to spread infostealers

    Malware / July 09, 2025

    Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for July 2025 fixed a zero-day

    Security / July 08, 2025

    Italian police arrested a Chinese national suspected of cyberespionage on a U.S. warrant

    Intelligence / July 08, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds MRLG, PHPMailer, Rails Ruby on Rails, and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 08, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT