The Cl0p Ransomware Attack on Clicks Group Limited

The Cl0p ransomware gang has attacked Clicks Group Limited. Clicks Group Limited is a retail and healthcare company based in South Africa. It operates through its various subsidiaries and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Clicks Group is primarily known for its retail chain, Clicks, which specializes in health, beauty, and wellness products. Cl0p posted Clicks Group Limited to its data leak site on June 30th but provided no further details.

Understanding Cl0p Ransomware

Cl0p is a major Ransomware-as-service (RaaS) platform first observed in 2019. Cl0p is a dangerous ransomware family because it has advanced anti-analysis capabilities and anti-virtual machine analysis to prevent investigations in an emulated environment like those commonly used by security tools. Cl0p is one of just a handful of threat actors that have developed a Linux version. While Linux has a tiny footprint in desktop computing, it runs ~80% of web servers and a substantial portion of embedded devices used in the healthcare field – and this means that Cl0p is likely actively recruiting new talent to help improve their platform and expand the scope of what and whom they can attack.