A major manufacturing company fell victim to a swift and devastating ransomware attack after threat actors gained access using just one set of stolen VPN credentials.
The attack, carried out by the cybercrime group Ignoble Scorpius, culminated in widespread encryption of virtual machines and brought critical operations to a halt.
The Initial Compromise
The breach began when an employee received a deceptive voice phishing call. The caller pretended to be from the company’s IT help desk and convinced the employee to enter their VPN login information on a counterfeit website, as reported by Unit42.
With these stolen credentials, attackers slipped inside the network undetected and quickly elevated their user privileges.
Within hours, they had executed a DCSync attack on a domain controller to harvest additional high-level credentials.
Armed with administrative credentials, the intruders moved through the network via Remote Desktop and SMB protocols.
They used common system tools such as Advanced IP Scanner to map the network and identify high-value servers.
To maintain long-term access, they installed AnyDesk and a custom remote access Trojan on a domain controller, configuring it as a scheduled task so it would survive system reboots.
A second domain controller was then compromised, exposing the entire NTDS.dit database of password hashes.
Over 400 GB of sensitive data was siphoned off using a renamed rclone utility. Before launching the ransomware, the attackers ran CCleaner to wipe forensic logs.
The final phase of the attack was orchestrated through Ansible. Hundreds of virtual machines across roughly 60 VMware ESXi hosts were encrypted almost simultaneously by BlackSuit ransomware.
Production lines ground to a standstill, causing significant financial and operational damage. The manufacturer immediately called in Unit 42, which led a rapid response effort.
The response team advised replacing outdated Cisco ASA firewalls with next-generation firewalls, enforcing network segmentation, and restricting management access to critical servers.
Multi-factor authentication was mandated for all remote logins, and service accounts were locked down to prevent misuse.
As a result, the $20 million ransom demand was rejected, and no payment was made.
This incident highlights how one compromised set of VPN credentials can trigger a chain reaction of exploitation, data theft, and encryption.
Organizations must deploy layered defenses combining strong authentication, comprehensive endpoint visibility, automated containment, and expert guidance to disrupt attacks before they escalate.
Investments in proactive security measures pay off exponentially when compared to the costs of a full-scale ransomware crisis.
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