On July 7, 2025, a notable escalation occurred within the cybercriminal underworld. Two of the most active ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations-DragonForce and RansomHub-are now openly clashing in a bid for dominance over affiliates, territory, and reputation. The internal conflict between these syndicates isn’t just a matter of underground power play; it directly signals a growing risk for enterprises across industries, where rivalries among criminal actors translate into more frequent and more damaging ransomware attacks.
The Conflict Unfolds
The incident first became public when RansomHub hijacked and defaced infrastructure affiliated with DragonForce, issuing bold statements claiming operational superiority. DragonForce, previously known for its role in the Marks & Spencer and other UK-based retail breaches, had recently expanded and rebranded its platform to attract new affiliates. This move triggered RansomHub, another powerful player in the RaaS space, to retaliate and publicly humiliate its rival by asserting control over its systems and attempting to lure away its partner network.
As these groups attempt to outmaneuver one another, cybersecurity researchers warn that the fallout may directly affect organizations worldwide. With each group trying to prove its power, new and more aggressive ransomware campaigns are likely to be unleashed, including advanced tactics like double extortion, accelerated encryption timelines, and widespread data publication threats.
A Dangerous Evolution in Ransomware Strategy
This infighting reflects a larger trend in the ransomware ecosystem: the evolution of RaaS into full-fledged criminal enterprises with internal politics, recruitment strategies, and competitive marketing. Affiliates-contracted hackers who use RaaS platforms-now have multiple options and are being courted with promises of better payment models, faster infrastructure, and higher success rates. That means cyberattacks are no longer limited to a singular actor’s strategy; they are dynamic, decentralized, and often shaped by competition.
What organizations must recognize is that these rivalries make the threat surface more volatile. Each gang’s desire to maintain reputation and prove dominance results in an increased frequency and severity of attacks, particularly on industries that offer operational or financial leverage.
Key targets include retail, banking and finance, logistics, healthcare, technology providers, and government services. These sectors hold large volumes of sensitive data and rely on continuous uptime-making them ideal victims for extortion and data leaks.
How COE Security Protects Enterprises Against RaaS Dynamics
At COE Security, we understand that ransomware is no longer just a malware problem-it’s a business model problem. As RaaS groups professionalize and compete, organizations need equally sophisticated defenses that go beyond traditional antivirus and firewall solutions.
We offer industry-tailored ransomware resilience programs across:
- Retail and E-commerce – Protecting customer data and transactional systems from targeted ransomware attacks and double extortion.
- Banking and Financial Services – Enhancing detection of lateral movements and isolating financial data during early stages of compromise.
- Healthcare – Ensuring patient record protection and ransomware response aligned with HIPAA, especially during critical care operations.
- Manufacturing and Logistics – Securing operational technology (OT) and reducing downtime risk during ransomware lockdowns.
- Critical Infrastructure and Government – Implementing zero-trust strategies, segmentation, and 24×7 threat monitoring to prevent systemic compromise.
We achieve this by delivering:
- Ransomware simulation and red team exercises to test preparedness at technical, operational, and executive levels.
- Behavior-based endpoint detection and response (EDR) that can stop ransomware activities before payload execution.
- Threat intelligence feeds that track affiliate campaigns, leak sites, and ransomware variant behaviors in real-time.
- Immutable backup strategy implementation to ensure recovery without paying ransom, aligned with ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR, NIST, RBI, and HIPAA.
- Post-breach incident handling, including legal coordination, technical remediation, forensics, and public communication management.
COE Security helps organizations transition from reactive defense to proactive readiness, making sure that even when ransomware groups evolve, your enterprise doesn’t have to fear disruption.
About COE Security
COE Security is a leading cybersecurity firm specializing in advanced threat intelligence, enterprise defense, and cyber risk management. Our services cover end-to-end security-from compliance and auditing to real-time detection and incident response-tailored for high-impact industries such as finance, healthcare, retail, technology, and government.
As ransomware groups like DragonForce and RansomHub reshape the digital threatscape, COE Security offers the expertise and tools necessary to anticipate, neutralize, and recover from these modern cyber threats.
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