DragonForce Ransomware - The Rising Cartel Redefining Hybrid Extortion in 2025 by Check Point Research

DragonForce Ransomware - The Rising Cartel Redefining Hybrid Extortion in 2025 by Check Point Research

The ransomware world isn’t just evolving—it’s fragmenting, decentralizing, and growing more dangerous. In this volatile landscape, DragonForce is emerging as one of the most intriguing and threatening actors of 2025. Born from possible hacktivist roots and now fully immersed in the economics of cybercrime, DragonForce represents a new era of hybrid threats: ideologically ambiguous, technologically agile, and fiercely opportunistic. A Ransomware …

The ransomware group DragonForce is under suspicion of being behind the recent attacks on British retail chains. Originally associated with ideologically motivated actions, the group has developed into a full-fledged ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) provider, attracting unemployed hackers and freelancers with an unusually flexible business model – despite comparatively low profit sharing. Figure 1: DragonForce hired its servers to be accessible fr…

Ransomware group stands for a new era of hybrid threats: ideologically ambiguous, technologically agile and extremely opportunistic.