The group behind a new ransomware variant threaten to go beyond encrypting data in their attempts to force victims to pay up.
Cybercriminals are distributing a new form of ransomware in attacks against victims in which they not only encrypt the network but also make threats to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and to harass employees and business partners if a ransom isn't paid.
Dubbed Yanluowang, the
ransomware was uncovered by
cybersecurity researchers in Broadcom Software's Symantec Threat Hunter team while they were investigating an attempted cyberattack against a large undisclosed organization.
While the attempted attack wasn't successful, the investigation revealed a new form of ransomware. It also provided insight into how some cybercriminals are attempting to make attacks more effective -- in this case, with the threat of additional attacks.