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Researchers reported that the Agenda ransomware operation, also tracked as Qilin, is conducting highly customized enterprise attacks across Asia and Africa and has now been linked to a victim in South Africa. A recent victim listing identified Trends And Concepts in South Africa, associated with the domain www.trendsandconceptsinteriors.com, as impacted by the Qilin group. Trend researchers said Agenda operators build victim-specific Go-based payloads that can include leaked account credentials, unique company identifiers, customized RSA keys, and ransom demands ranging from $50,000 to $800,000, with observed targeting of healthcare and education organizations in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Thailand.
The intrusion methods described across the reports show a flexible and increasingly sophisticated playbook. In one case, attackers accessed a public-facing Citrix server using a valid account, moved laterally with RDP and leaked Active Directory credentials, scanned networks with Nmap and Nping, and deployed ransomware through Group Policy in under two days. A separate Trend investigation found Agenda actors using fake Google CAPTCHA pages to deliver credential stealers, then abusing legitimate remote-management tools including ATERA, AnyDesk, ScreenConnect, and Splashtop, while deploying COROXY SOCKS proxies, targeting Veeam backup infrastructure, and using BYOVD techniques with vulnerable drivers such as eskle.sys; the final ransomware payload was reportedly a Linux variant executed on Windows, likely through Windows Subsystem for Linux.
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Trends And Concepts in South Africa was identified as a victim of a ransomware attack attributed to the Qilin group. The report listed both the breach and discovery time as 08:56 UTC and described the incident as involving a data breach.
Trend Research disclosed an Agenda ransomware intrusion in which operators used remote management tools, credential theft, COROXY proxies, BYOVD techniques, and likely Windows Subsystem for Linux to run a Linux ransomware payload on Windows systems.
TrendAI published analysis of the Go-based Agenda ransomware, also linked to the name Qilin, describing victim-specific payload customization, targeting of enterprises in Asia and Africa, and an observed intrusion that moved from Citrix access to Group Policy deployment in under two days.
Trend Research reported that a similar Agenda ransomware intrusion observed in June 2025 used MeshAgent and MeshCentral for deployment. This established earlier tradecraft later contrasted with the 2026 Linux-on-Windows case.
Trend Micro published research examining the infection routine of Black Basta ransomware. The Agenda/Qilin analysis later compared Agenda capabilities and tradecraft with Black Basta.
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The Qilin ransomware group, also known as Agenda, has adopted a sophisticated cross-platform attack strategy by deploying Linux-based ransomware binaries on Windows systems. This technique leverages legitimate remote management and file transfer tools such as Splashtop, WinSCP, AnyDesk, ATERA RMM, ScreenConnect, and MeshCentral to bypass traditional Windows-centric endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Attackers gain initial access through social engineering, including fake CAPTCHA pages, and use credential theft to facilitate lateral movement and privilege escalation. The group also employs Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks to disable security defenses and steals backup credentials, particularly from Veeam, to prevent recovery and maximize extortion leverage. Qilin's operations have impacted over 700 victims globally since January 2025, with a focus on sectors such as manufacturing, professional and scientific services, and wholesale trade. The group uses a double-extortion model, exfiltrating sensitive data with tools like Cyberduck before encrypting files and threatening public disclosure. Qilin's affiliates have been observed using a variety of post-exploitation tools, including Mimikatz and custom scripts, to harvest credentials and exfiltrate data. The group's rapid evolution and ability to evade detection highlight the growing sophistication of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations targeting organizations worldwide.
Jun 29, 2026
The **Qilin** ransomware group claimed multiple new victims across the United States, Canada, Austria, and Germany, hitting organizations in manufacturing, professional services, financial services, media, retail, property management, and utilities. Named victims included Community Management Associates, Pointe Property Group, Ceragres, Dienst Pack Systems, Schreiner Trockenbau GmbH, Commercial Furniture Interiors, *The Saturday Evening Post*, Wire Products, Freedom Claims Management, and Service Electric. Several reports described the incidents as both ransomware attacks and associated data breaches, indicating continued emphasis on extortion through stolen data as well as operational disruption. Separate reporting tied Qilin affiliates to active exploitation of Internet-facing VPN and firewall infrastructure, including **Palo Alto GlobalProtect** `CVE-2026-0257` and **Check Point VPN** `CVE-2026-50751`, as part of broader mid-2026 ransomware access campaigns. That activity was reported alongside common post-compromise tradecraft such as Impacket, NTLM relay, Mimikatz, PsExec, RDP, WMI, browser credential theft, and use of WSL for EDR evasion. A weekly ransomware trend report counted Qilin among the most active groups, with **31 claimed victims** during the period, reinforcing its position as a leading extortion threat affecting organizations across sectors and regions.
Aug 10, 2026
**Qilin** ransomware has emerged as one of the most active cybercrime threats, with NCC Group identifying it as the most prolific ransomware group for the fifth consecutive quarter as global ransomware incidents climbed to 2,229 in Q2 2026. The group, also tracked as **Agenda** or **Qilin Locker**, operates a double-extortion **RaaS** model and has concentrated on high-GDP Western countries while reportedly avoiding CIS member states. Manufacturing and other industrial sectors have been hit hardest, alongside business services, technology, healthcare, and finance, with North America remaining the most affected region and Belgium reporting at least 15 alleged Qilin compromises that disrupted operations and exposed sensitive corporate data.
Jul 24, 2026