Tracking Adversaries: Akira, another descendent of Conti
The dozens of cybercriminals that made up the Conti group continue to launch campaigns unabated. Previously in 2022, I blogged about how following the Conti Leaks , the operators of Conti continued on via multiple rebranded ransomware campaigns, such as Royal, BlackBasta, and Quantum, among others. Since my last two blogs on the Conti/TrickBot gang, multiple members have been officially sanctioned by the US and UK government in February 2023 and September 2023 , formally confirming attribution to Russia-based threat actors. The sanctions are a vital step in the right direction and helps the public and law makers understand what organized cybercrime looks like and the scale of the fight on our hands. In this blog, however, I wanted to explore the ransomware campaign called Akira that appeared in March 2023 and focus on how Akira is connected to Conti. Akira is a rapidly growing threat to civil society and critical infrastructure and is the ransomware group I believe researchers and