Description Summary
Vice Society was a ransomware extortion group active from 2021 to early 2024, best known for relentless attacks on the education sector — schools, school districts, and universities. Rather than developing their own encryptor, they typically deployed third-party ransomware (Hello Kitty, Zeppelin, PolyVice, RedAlert). The group is assessed to have rebranded as Rhysida in 2023.
Threat Actor
Russian-speaking actor. Heavy overlap with Rhysida.
Technical Indicators
Encryption Extension
.v-society / .locked / payload-dependent
Encryption Algorithm
ChaCha20-Poly1305 + NTRUEncrypt (PolyVice variant)
Ransom Note Name
AllYFilesAE / payload-dependent
Targeted Industries
Education (K-12 and higher ed), Healthcare, Government
First Seen
May 2021
Last Seen
Q1 2024 (transition to Rhysida)
Geographical Location
United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil
MITRE ATT&CK Matrix
| Tactic | TTP | Technique Name |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Access x 3 | T1566 | Phishing |
| T1190 | Exploit Public-Facing Application | |
| T1078 | Valid Accounts | |
| Execution x 1 | T1059 | Command and Scripting Interpreter |
| Execution Persistence x 1 | T1053 | Scheduled Task/Job |
| Defense Evasion x 2 | T1562.001 | Disable or Modify Tools |
| T1070.004 | File Deletion | |
| Discovery x 2 | T1083 | File and Directory Discovery |
| T1082 | System Information Discovery | |
| Lateral Movement x 2 | T1021.001 | Remote Services: RDP |
| T1021.002 | SMB/Windows Admin Shares | |
| Exfiltration x 2 | T1041 | Exfiltration Over C2 Channel |
| T1567.002 | Exfiltration to Cloud Storage | |
| Impact x 3 | T1486 | Data Encrypted for Impact |
| T1490 | Inhibit System Recovery | |
| T1489 | Service Stop |