Collecting and exfiltrating data
We've already discussed that modern human-operated ransomware attacks, in most cases, are not only about data encryption but about data exfiltration. There are multiple sources that ransomware affiliates may collect data from before exfiltration. Let's look at the most common ones.
Data from local system (T1005)
The threat actors may find valuable data on some of the compromised systems. Agreements, contracts, or files containing personal data – all these may be used by ransomware affiliates for extortion.
Data from network shared drives (T1039)
Network shared drives are very common sources of potentially sensitive information, so data in such locations is often collected and exfiltrated by various ransomware affiliates.
Email collection (T1114)
Some threat actors use a more targeted approach. For example, Cl0p ransomware affiliates usually tried to locate hosts that belonged to the target company's top management...