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This is a SISA Cybersecurity Alert.

ID number Alpha Alpha 2-3-TAC 0-61 Alpha.

Original release date, March 2nd, 2023.

CISA and FBI are releasing this joint advisory to disseminate known royal ransomware

IOCs and TTPs identified through recent FBI threat response

activities. Since approximately September 2022, cyber criminals have

compromised US and international organizations with a royal

ransomware variant.

FBI and CISA believe this variant, which uses its own custom-made file encryption program evolved from earlier iterations that used

Zeon as a loader. After gaining access to victims' networks, Royal Actors

disable antivirus software and exfiltrate large amounts of data before ultimately

deploying the ransomware and encrypting the systems.

Royal actors have made ransom demands ranging from approximately $1 million to $11 million in Bitcoin.

In observed incidents, Royal actors do not include ransom amounts and payment instructions

as a part of the initial ransom note.

Instead, the note which appears after encryption

requires victims to directly interact

with the threat actor via a dot onion URL.

Royal actors have targeted numerous critical infrastructure sectors including manufacturing,

communications, health care, and public health care and education.

FBI and CISA encourage organizations to implement the recommendations in the mitigation section of this alert to reduce the likelihood and impact of ransomware incidents.

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