Russian Ransomware Gangs Start Collaborating With Chinese Hackers

There's some unusual activity brewing on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums, where hackers appear to be reaching out to Chinese counterparts for collaboration. BleepingComputer reports: These attempts to enlist Chinese threat actors are mainly seen on the RAMP hacking forum, which is encouraging Mandarin-speaking actors to participate in conversations, share tips, and collaborate on attacks. The forum has reportedly had at least thirty new user registrations that appear to come from China, so this could be the beginning of something notable. The researchers suggest that the most probable cause is that Russian ransomware gangs seek to build alliances with Chinese actors to launch cyber-attacks against U.S. targets, trade vulnerabilities, or even recruit new talent for their Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operations.

A threat analyst told BleepingComputer earlier this month that this initiative was started by a RAMP admin known as Kajit, who claims to have recently spent some time in China and can speak the language. In the prior version of RAMP, he had intimated that he would be inviting Chinese threat actors to the forum, which appears to now be taking place. However, Russian hackers attempting to collaborate with Chinese threat actors is not limited to the RAMP hacking forum as Flashpoint has also seen similar collaboration on the XSS hacking forum. [...] RAMP was set up last summer by a core member of the original Babuk ransomware gang, aiming to serve as a new place to leak valuable data stolen from cyberattacks and recruit ransomware affiliates. Further reading: US Says Iran-backed Hackers Are Now Targeting Organizations With Ransomware

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[Anonymous Coward]

Sure thing, Ivan. When you stop trying to hack everyone we will stop calling you out for it.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I wouldn't take this at face value

[campuscodi]

I wouldn't take this at face value as that forum is considered low-quality by most threat analysts and their administrator is known for making stuff up just for media attention, hoping to draw in new users. Take it from someone who knows what they're talking about.

Re: I wouldn't take this at face value

[IdanceNmyCar]

But 30 registrations. You should be very afraid. After all, winter is coming.

So now it we're done with Afghanistan

[rsilvergun]

And one of the reasons we are done with Afghanistan is that we are shifting focus to Russia and China. AKA near peers. Expect to see a lot of stories about how Russia and China are working together against America. Some of them might even be real but the point is the focus of our fear and hate and of our reason for keeping the defense budget after near 1 trillion dollars a year has shifted.

For anyone who's tired of spending a trillion dollars a year when wars are literally a thing of the past because me

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[tinkerton]

Not sure you noticed but the "Russia Bad" stories started to appear as soon as mr Putin dared to suggest in 2007 that Russia would like a certain degree of sovereignty. Under Obama there would still be some attempts to put the brakes on it . But since then everything went into zombie mob mode. To put it nicely.

Cold War Collusion Delusion

[Hari Pota]

The Russians reportedly gave the US advance warning about 911. The perpetuation of the Cold War is the most absurd situation but not surprising with the monotreme politicians that seem to prevail. I strongly believe its time to cultivate much better relations with russia if anything as an ally against China the true threat to the US. There is a good chance a much more moderate non-KGB type might get elected when Putin finally steps or falls down.