Ransomware Gangs Shift Tactics, Making Crimes Harder to Track

Ransomware gangs increasingly use their own or stolen computer code, moving away from a leasing model that made their activities easier to monitor, new research shows.

Numerous prominent hacking groups in recent years have functioned by leasing their malicious software and computing infrastructure to other bad actors, in what’s known as ransomware-as-a-service. That model, which experts say turbocharged the number of ransomware attacks, was offered by infamous groups such as Conti, which shuttered Irish health systems, and REvil, deemed responsible for a 2021 intrusion at the IT management firm Kaseya Ltd.