The Conti hacking group, also known as Wizard Spider, is a notorious cybercriminal organization that has been active since around 2020. They are best known for deploying ransomware attacks against high-profile targets like government agencies, hospitals, and large corporations. In this comprehensive 5,000 word guide, we will explore who the Conti hackers are, provide an overview of their major attacks and tactics, examine their organizational structure, discuss their motivations, and consider how organizations can defend themselves against this formidable threat.
What is Conti?
Conti is a Russia-based cybercrime operation that uses targeted ransomware attacks to extort money from victims. Their ransomware works by encrypting files on a target’s computer network, making them inaccessible. Conti will then demand a ransom payment in cryptocurrency from the victim in order to receive a decryption key to restore access to the locked files.
Some key facts about the Conti group:
- First appeared around January 2020
- Employs ransomware-as-a-service model
- Ransom demands have ranged from $150,000 to $25 million+
- Communicates via a dark web leak site
- Threatens victims with auctioning data theft if ransom not paid
- Claimed over 1,000 victims worldwide as of 2022
Conti operates as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) syndicate, meaning they develop ransomware tools and infrastructure but recruit outside affiliates to carry out attacks. The ransom payments are then split between Conti and their affiliates. This model allows Conti to scale up attacks dramatically.
Major Conti Cyber Attacks
Some of the most damaging Conti ransomware attacks include:
- Ireland’s Health Service Executive (2021) – Crippling attack shut down Ireland’s healthcare IT systems for months and delayed treatment for thousands of patients.
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (2020) – Led to the loss of over 4,000 computers and caused significant disruption.
- Kronos Private Company (2021) – Attack on workforce management firm Kronos left hundreds of companies unable to access essential employee systems.
- Singapore Public Services (2022) – Compromised personal data of hundreds of thousands of government employees.
- Costa Rica Government (2022) – Brought down multiple government systems including tax and customs platforms.
Other major Conti victims have included law firms, manufacturing companies, IT service providers, and retailers. The broad range of targets demonstrates Conti’s willingness to attack all manner of organizations for financial gain.
How Conti Carries Out Ransomware Attacks
Conti’s ransomware methodology generally follows these steps:
- Initial access – Typically via phishing email, compromised credentials, or security vulnerabilities.
- Internal reconnaissance – Hackers explore the network and escalate privileges.
- Deployment – Malware and ransomware deployed across systems.
- Extraction – Sensitive data exfiltrated for additional leverage.
- Encryption – Ransomware executed, locking files.
- Extortion – Ransom demand issued along with threats to leak data.
Conti has also innovated on these standard techniques:
- Use of Cobalt Strike for network exploitation
- Abuse of legitimate tools like PsExec for lateral movement
- Targeting of domain controllers and backups for maximum impact
- Multi-stage ransomware payload for evading detection
Their ability to adapt and improve their tradecraft makes Conti a particularly challenging adversary.
Conti’s Organizational Structure
Conti is structured with a core leadership team that manages different internal teams:
- Developers – Create the ransomware payload and manage infrastructure.
- Affiliates – External hackers who compromise targets and deploy ransomware.
- Negotiators – Handle ransom discussions and payments with victims.
- Translators – Translate communications for global operations.
- Leak site operators – Manage Conti’s dark web portal for stolen victim data.
This decentralized structure allows Conti to scale up attacks while limiting exposure of central leadership. Affiliates take on the riskiest activities while the core team handles high-level operations securely from Russia.
Inside Conti’s Ransomware-as-a-Service
Conti pioneered many concepts of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). Here is how their RaaS model works:
- Conti developers create the ransomware payload and infrastructure.
- Affiliates pay to access, distribute, and deploy the ransomware.
- Affiliates identify and compromise target organizations.
- Encrypted files, ransom notes, payment sites created.
- Conti handles ransom negotiations with the victim.
- Payment divided between Conti (60-70%) and affiliates (30-40%).
For Conti, this provides exponential growth by outsourcing the riskiest attack activities. For affiliates, it grants easy access to sophisticated ransomware only available on the dark web.
Conti is constantly seeking to recruit new affiliates via dark web ads and affiliate referrals. Their RaaS model empowers even low-skilled hackers to deploy ransomware globally.
Motivations Behind Conti’s Cyber Attacks
Conti’s key motivations appear to be:
- Financial gain – Their primary goal is to extort maximum ransom payments from victims. Ransoms have run into the tens of millions.
- Destruction – They intentionally cripple networks via ransomware encryption and deletion of backups.
- Leverage – Conti steals and threatens to leak sensitive data to force ransom payment.
- Retaliation – Attacks increased after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as retaliation for sanctions.
Essentially, Conti pursues both money and mayhem. Their brazen hacking reflects both greed and a vindictive nature. Russia’s tolerance of their activities grants them impunity as well.
Hallmarks of a Conti Ransomware Attack
These signals may indicate your organization has been hit with Conti ransomware:
- Inability to access files or shared drives
- “CONTI” ransom note left on systems
- Renamed files with .conti or .CONTILOCK extensions
- Conti Tor payment portal website
- Leak threat email from Conti to your organization
- Stolen company files published on Conti’s leak site
Identifying a Conti attack quickly based on these indicators is crucial for responding appropriately to mitigate damage.
Recent Developments with Conti
Some notable recent events impacting Conti operations:
- February 2022 – Conti sided with Russia supporting the Ukraine invasion, vowing to “use all our possible resources to strike back at the critical infrastructures of an enemy.”
- May 2022 – A Conti affiliate leaked internal chats exposing divisions within Conti. Many affiliates defected after this.
- June 2022 – Cybersecurity researchers revealed Conti suffered asupply chain ransomware attack themselves from another group.
- August 2022 – The FBI penetrated Conti’s infrastructure allowing decryption of Conti ransomware in some cases.
While Conti proved resilient through major leaks and supply chain attacks, the FBI infiltration seriously hampered their ransomware operations.
Examples of Conti Ransomware Victims
Major entities impacted by Conti ransomware attacks include:
- Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) – Conti attack in 2021 caused widespread Irish hospital outages leading to delayed cancer treatments and cancelled surgeries.
- Sinclair Broadcast Group – The media conglomerate paid millions in ransom to Conti in 2021 after news assets were encrypted.
- New Zealand Reserve Bank – January 2022 attack led to a week of system outages at the central bank.
- Costa Rica Government – An April 2022 Conti attack crippled key government agency systems like tax and customs platforms.
- Peru Justice Department – 70TB of data stolen in a July 2022 attack affecting 10,000 ministry employees.
These examples demonstrate Conti’s willingness to target victims regardless of geography, industry or public/private status.
Defending Against Conti Ransomware
Organizations can take these key steps to defend against Conti ransomware attacks:
- Educate staff on cyber risks like phishing to prevent initial compromise.
- Promptly patch known exploited vulnerabilities like Log4Shell.
- Segment networks and access to limit lateral movement.
- Deploy EDR tools to detect intrusions and prevent ransomware execution.
- Maintain offline backups inaccessible to ransomware encryption.
- Have an IR plan for quickly responding to potential attacks.
Staying vigilant against emerging Conti tactics and following best practices greatly reduces an organization’s risk and impact if attacked.
Conclusion
Conti established themselves as one of the most aggressive and destructive ransomware syndicates active today. Their innovative RaaS model empowers affiliates to carry out devastating attacks worldwide. By better understanding Conti’s history, tactics, motivations and victims, organizations can more effectively avoid and combat these dangerous cybercriminals.
