ALPHV ransomware breached loanDepot and Prudential Financial

The ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the recent breaches of the networks of Prudential Financial and loanDepot.

See also: ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware: $10 million reward for information on its leaders

The two companies were added to ALPHV’s leak page on the Dark Web, with the perpetrators still not posting any proof of their claims. The ALPHV ransomware group plans to sell the stolen data from the loanDepot network and release the Prudential data for free after failed negotiations.

LoanDepot revealed on January 22 that the personal information of at least 16.6 million people had been stolen in the ALPHV ransomware attack, which it confirmed on January 8. The company said it would notify those affected by the data breach and provide them with free credit card monitoring and identity protection services.

loanDepot is one of the largest non-bank mortgage accounting companies in the United States, with about 6,000 employees and over $140 billion in serviced loans, which suffered an attack by the ransomware group ALPHV. On Tuesday, the financial firm Prudential Financial disclosed that a ransomware group breached its network on February 4 and stole employee and contractor data.

Prudential Financial said an investigation is assessing the full scope and impact of the incident, but so far has not found evidence that the attackers also stole customer or client data. The financial services company is the second-largest life insurer in the U.S., with reported revenue of more than $50 billion in 2023, and employs 40,000 people globally.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or tracking of the leaders of the ALPHV ransomware group, following the attacks on Prudential Financial and loanDepot. An additional $5 million reward is being offered for information about individuals associated with or attempting to participate in ALPHV ransomware attacks.

See also: TNPI investigates ALPHV ransomware attack

The FBI links this gang to over 60 breaches worldwide in its first four months of activity between November 2021 and March 2022. The police agency also estimates that ALPHV collected at least $300 million in ransom from over 1,000 victims by September 2023.

ALPHV emerged in November 2021 and is believed to be a reorganization of the DarkSide and BlackMatter.

The group became globally known after the attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which led to extensive investigations by national law enforcement authorities worldwide.

The FBI halted the gang's operation in December and temporarily took down its websites for negotiation and leak on Tor, after a breach of its servers months earlier and the creation of a decryption tool.

The ransomware group ALPHV has meanwhile released the data leak site using the private keys they owned, and has now launched a new Tor leak site that the FBI has not yet shut down, to leak loanDepot's information.

See also: BlackCat: Uses the 'Munchkin' virtual machine for stealth attacks

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Source: bleepingcomputer