Ransomware gang Qilin this week claimed responsibility for an April 14, 2025 cyber-attack on the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Chattanooga, TN. The office on May 2 acknowledged a ransomware attack, saying the hackers demanded $300,000 in ransom. The sheriff says HCSO did not pay the ransom, but did pay $48,000 to Vendetta, a third-party cybersecurity firm.
In a blog post reporting this news, Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech, wrote:
“Qilin is a ransomware gang that started claiming responsibility for attacks on its website in late 2022. Also known as Agenda, Qilin is a Russia-based hacking group that mainly targets victims through phishing emails to spread its ransomware. It launched in August 2022 and runs a ransomware-as-a-service business in which affiliates pay to use Qilin’s malware to launch attacks and collect ransoms. Qilin made another 171 unconfirmed attack claims that haven’t been acknowledged by the targeted organizations. Three of those allegedly hit government organizations.”
“Ransomware attacks on US government agencies and departments can both steal data and lock down computer systems. The attacker then demands a ransom to delete the stolen data and in exchange for a key to recover infected systems. If the target doesn’t pay, it could take weeks or even months to restore systems, data could be lost forever, and people whose data was stolen are put at greater risk of fraud. According to our data, it takes an average of 19.5 days for government organizations to recover from ransomware attacks.”
This gang appears to be on a roll as I have been writing a fair amount about them recently. That’s not good for all of us as that will embolden them to launch increased and more devastating attacks on organizations.
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This entry was posted on May 9, 2025 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Qilin Ransomware gang says it hacked the Sheriff of Hamilton County, TN
Ransomware gang Qilin this week claimed responsibility for an April 14, 2025 cyber-attack on the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Chattanooga, TN. The office on May 2 acknowledged a ransomware attack, saying the hackers demanded $300,000 in ransom. The sheriff says HCSO did not pay the ransom, but did pay $48,000 to Vendetta, a third-party cybersecurity firm.
In a blog post reporting this news, Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech, wrote:
“Qilin is a ransomware gang that started claiming responsibility for attacks on its website in late 2022. Also known as Agenda, Qilin is a Russia-based hacking group that mainly targets victims through phishing emails to spread its ransomware. It launched in August 2022 and runs a ransomware-as-a-service business in which affiliates pay to use Qilin’s malware to launch attacks and collect ransoms. Qilin made another 171 unconfirmed attack claims that haven’t been acknowledged by the targeted organizations. Three of those allegedly hit government organizations.”
“Ransomware attacks on US government agencies and departments can both steal data and lock down computer systems. The attacker then demands a ransom to delete the stolen data and in exchange for a key to recover infected systems. If the target doesn’t pay, it could take weeks or even months to restore systems, data could be lost forever, and people whose data was stolen are put at greater risk of fraud. According to our data, it takes an average of 19.5 days for government organizations to recover from ransomware attacks.”
This gang appears to be on a roll as I have been writing a fair amount about them recently. That’s not good for all of us as that will embolden them to launch increased and more devastating attacks on organizations.
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This entry was posted on May 9, 2025 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.