Security Researchers Establish Connections Between 3AM Ransomware and Conti, Royal Cybercriminal Groups

Security researchers examining the operations of the recently surfaced 3AM ransomware group have unveiled strong connections with notorious entities like the Conti syndicate and the Royal ransomware gang.

The 3AM ransomware, also known as ThreeAM, has adopted a novel extortion strategy: publicly revealing data leaks to victims’ social media followers and utilizing bots to respond to influential accounts on X (formerly Twitter), directing them to the compromised data.

Initially observed by Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team in mid-September, 3AM gained attention after threat actors shifted from deploying LockBit malware. According to French cybersecurity firm Intrinsec, ThreeAM is likely affiliated with the Royal ransomware group, now rebranded as Blacksuit, consisting of former members of Team 2 within the Conti syndicate.

As Intrinsec delved into their investigation, they found substantial overlap in communication channels, infrastructure, and tactics between 3AM and the Conti syndicate. Notably, an IP address listed by Symantec as a network indicator of compromise led researchers to a PowerShell script for dropping Cobalt Strike on VirusTotal.

Further investigation uncovered a SOCKS4 proxy on TCP port 8000, a TLS certificate associated with an RDP service, and HTML content from 3AM’s data leak site indexed by the Shodan platform. The servers involved were traced

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