How and why LockBit hacker group that was brought down by agencies of 10 countries may be back in more ‘dangerous’ form

An international operation took down the LockBit ransomware gang, among other hacking groups, in February this year. However, they are rebuilding and reportedly planning to become more aggressive by considering physical violence ‘threats’ as one of the ways to compel victims to give into their demands.
According to a report by news agency AFP, the hacking groups that are rebuilding are looking to resort to ‘Violence as service’ to successfully execute their malicious campaigns.Previously, these groups relied on online threats, however, the report says that some newer gangs seem to be considering physical violence threat.

The report said that the year so far has been rough for cybercriminal gangs with law enforcement operations shutting down several prominent groups, including LockBit, a network known for Russian-speaking hackers.
LockBit created malicious software used to lock victims out of their computer systems, steal data, and demand ransom for its return. LockBit functions as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) – which means that the hackers provide software to other such groups to undertake ransomware attacks. These types of attacks lock victims’ machines and ask ransom to decrypt the data.
LockBit has caused major disruptions for governments, businesses and even hospitals with victims reportedly paid hundreds of millions in untraceable cryptocurrency.

As per Nicolas Raiga-Clemenceau of the XMCO consultancy in France, after the disruption of LockBit in February and another network of malicious bots in May, “a number of new groups” had since appeared and started to organise themselves.
Allan Liska of US cybersecurity company Recorded Future pointed out ‘worrying trends’ emerging with some of the new groups, saying ‘Violence as service’ is their new way to attack people.
These gangs may be considering using physical threats against victims, in addition to online intimidation tactics. Liska emphasises that these gangs might already possess sensitive information like addresses of important figures, potentially using it to fuel their physical threats or for other malicious purposes.
“And so if you're not getting anywhere in your negotiations, that's something you can threaten. We're going to do something in the real world to hurt you or hurt your family,” he said, naming this trend “violence as a service”.
“There's about a dozen of them that have popped up since the LockBit takedown, which is a higher number than we've ever seen in that short period of time,” he added.
According to Liska, these groups have launched extortion websites, showing lists of victims.