Tales From the Trenches; a Lockbit Ransomware Story

This McAfee/Northwave report documents a real-world LockBit targeted ransomware incident and provides a full technical breakdown: initial access by brute-forcing an exposed administrator account, automated SMB lateral movement and deployment via a .NET dropper disguised as a PNG, UAC bypasses and process-injection techniques, shadow copy deletion and service/process termination, ransom note/helpdesk interaction, sample-based IOCs, and observations on LockBit development and underground distribution.