Know thy enemy: business, brands, and power structures of ransomware groups

Drawing on an analysis of many sources, this talk takes you inside three of the most prolific ransomware groups of the last five years. Speakers Jason Nurse Agenda 17:30 Refreshments and networking (at venue) 17:55 Zoom meeting starts 18:00 Start 19:00 Questions and answers 20:00 End Synopsis LockBit, Conti, and BlackCat/ALPHV. These aren't just names in incident reports, they're sophisticated criminal enterprises with HR teams, brand strategies, and affiliate programmes that rival legitimate SaaS companies. Drawing on an analysis of over 500 sources including leaked internal communications, law enforcement disclosures, and dark web intelligence, this talk takes you inside three of the most prolific ransomware groups of the last five years. We'll unpack how they recruit, their organisational strategies, how they brand themselves, how they retaliate when threatened, and crucially, what that means for how we react and fight back to the wider ransomware cybercriminal threat. Whether you're a IT/security analyst, threat intel practitioner, policymaker, student or tech enthusiast, this talk will provide you with new insights into the ransomware ecosystem and concrete strategies through which we can (possibly) disrupt them. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT WILL NOT BE RECORDED About the speakers Dr Jason R.C. Nurse is a Reader in Cyber Security in the Institute of Cyber Security for Society and the School of Computing at the University of Kent. He also holds the roles of Associate Fellow at The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Visiting Fellow in Defence and Security at Cranfield University, and Research Member of Wolfson College, University of Oxford. His research interests include human aspects of cyber security, security culture, cyber harms, ransomware, cyber insurance, and corporate communications and cyber security. Dr Nurse has published close to 200 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious security journals, and his research has been featured in national and international media including the BBC, iTV, Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Wired, The Telegraph, and The Independent. Prior to joining Kent in 2018, Dr Nurse was a Senior Researcher in Cyber Security at the University of Oxford and before that, a Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Warwick. Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over. This meeting is conducted in accordance with the BCS Code of Conduct for Meetings. BCS is a membership organisation. If you enjoy this event, please consider joining BCS. You’ll be very welcome. You’ll receive access to many exclusive career development tools, an introduction to a thriving professional community and also help us Make IT Good For Society. Join BCS today If you are attending in person, please familiarise yourself with the Visitor Instructions for the BCS London Office. Please note, if you have any accessibility needs, please let us know via [email protected], and we’ll work with you to make suitable arrangements. BCS privacy notice: your data will be processed by BCS in accordance with our data privacy notice. Photography: by attending this event, you may be photographed or filmed. Please speak to a member of staff if you do not wish to be included. For overseas delegates who wish to attend the event, please note that BCS does not issue invitation letters. This event is brought to you by: BCS Kent Branch Photo by Kevin Horvat on Unsplash