Black Basta Ransomware Targets Inspired Entertainment

Black Basta ransomware group added Inspired Entertainment to their victim list. No further information was made publicly available. Inspired offers an expanding portfolio of content, technology, hardware, and services for regulated gaming, betting, lottery, social, and leisure operators across land-based and mobile channels around the world. Inspired’s gaming, virtual sports, interactive, and leisure products appeal to a wide variety of players, creating new opportunities for operators to grow their revenue.

Inspired operates in approximately 35 jurisdictions worldwide, supplying gaming systems with associated terminals and content for approximately 50,000 gaming machines located in betting shops, pubs, gaming halls and other route operations; virtual sports products through more than 32,000 retail venues and various online websites; digital games for 170+ websites; and a variety of amusement entertainment solutions with a total installed base of more than 16,000 gaming terminals.

About Black Basta Ransomware

Black Basta is a RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) that emerged in early 2022 and is assessed by some researchers to be an offshoot of the disbanded Conti and REvil attack groups. The group routinely exfiltrates sensitive data from victims for additional extortion leverage. Black Basta engages in highly targeted attacks and is assessed to only work with a limited group of highly vetted affiliate attackers.

Black Basta has quickly became one of the most prolific attack groups in 2023 and was observed leveraging unique TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) for ingress, lateral movement, data exfiltration data, and deployment of ransomware payloads. Ransom demands vary depending on the targeted organization with reports that they can be as high as $2 million dollars.

Black Basta continues to evolve their RaaS platform, with ransomware payloads that can infect systems running both Windows and Linux systems. Black Basta is particularly adept at exploiting vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi running on enterprise servers.

Technical Details of Black Basta Ransomware

Black Basta ransomware is written in C++, can target both Windows and Linux systems, encrypts data with ChaCha20, and then the encryption key is encrypted with RSA-4096 for rapid encryption of the targeted network. In some cases, Black Basta leverages malware strains like Qakbot and exploits such as PrintNightmare during the infection process.

Black Basta also favors abuse of insecure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) deployments, one of the leading infection vectors for ransomware. Black Basta typically targets manufacturing, transportation, construction and related services, telecommunications, the automotive sector, and healthcare providers.

Black Basta also employs a double extortion scheme and maintains an active leaks website where they post exfiltrated data if an organization declines to pay the ransom demand.