“Cicada3301” is a recently created ransomware tool on the market. The ransomware is named after the infamous 4chan puzzle project from the early 2010s. Cicada3301 emerged over two months ago on June 18, and has since been used to compromise 21 companies. The ransomware is similar to the BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation. Cicada3301 is being viewed as the next step up from BlackCat. While there is no current evidence directly connecting Cicada3301 and BlackCat, the amount of overlap suggests some type of connection. The malware quickly uses stolen credentials on the fly to get deeper into a target system.
Read more: https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/blackcat-spinoff-cicada3301-stolen-creds-skirts-edr