ChaiChi Malware Spreads Ransomware In The Education Sector and if your business has regular dealings with the market’s education sector, be aware that the PYSA ransomware gang has a new trick up its sleeves.
Recently, they’ve been using a RAT called ChaiChi Malware to create back doors in a wide range of education-oriented organizations and steal data or mass lock files with ransomware, then try to extort those organizations.
PYSA developed ChaiChi Malware sometime in early 2020. Researchers noted that the Malware Ransomware design was rather crude when observed in the wild, lacking any way of hiding from software-based security protocols. They couldn’t even do some of the basics, like port forwarding or tunneling.
Unfortunately, the ransomware gang didn’t stop at version 1.0. Since first spotted, the malware has been in a near-constant state of flux, receiving regular updates that have dramatically increased its capabilities.
ChaiChi Malware Watched by FBI
The ChaiChi Malware Spreads Ransomware threat is serious enough that it has even attracted the attention of the FBI. The agency began tracking ChaiChi campaigned in March of this year (2020) and has noted a recent increase in the number of PYSA ransomware targets in both the US and the UK.
The ChaiChi Ransomware gang seems to target organizations in education and healthcare preferentially, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Both types of organizations regularly deal with vast amounts of incredibly sensitive data, which has far more value on the Dark Web than a simple collection of credit card numbers.
If you do business in either the education or healthcare spaces, be careful. Especially if the organizations you do business with are using older, legacy systems and/or don’t have a robust backup process; you could be placing yourself at risk for the ChaiChi Malware Ransomware, as a breach of their system could lead to a breach of your own.
Stay vigilant. ChaiChi Malware isn’t the only threat out there.
