Compiled from this incident record and the threat intelligence profile for Akira. Figures and technique mappings are quoted from the source data, not inferred.
Akira listed Davis & Ferber on its dark web leak site on 25 August 2026. The personal injury law firm specializes in medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, nursing home abuse, and family law.
About Davis & Ferber
Davis & Ferber LLP is a personal injury and malpractice law firm based in New York, specializin
g in various legal areas including medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, nursing home a
buse, and family law.
We will upload 60gb of corporate data soon. Detailed personal client information (passports, DL
s, addresses, SSNs, death/birth certs, phones and so on for almost a thousand people), confiden
tial files, court files, hearings, police reports, NDAs, etc.
Source record: ransomware.live
About the Akira group
The Akira ransomware group is said to have emerged in March 2023, and there's much speculation about its ties to the former CONTI ransomware group. It's worth noting that with the end of CONTI's operation, several affiliates migrated to independent campaigns such as Royal, BlackBasta, and others. According to some reports, Akira affiliates also work with other ransomware operations, such as Snatch and BlackByte, as an open directory of tools used by an Akira operator was identified, which also had connections to the Snatch ransomware. The first version of the Akira ransomware was written in C++ and appended files with the '.akira' extension, creating a ransom note named 'akira_readme.txt,' partially based on the Conti V2 source code. However, on June 29, 2023, a decryptor for this version was reportedly released by Avast. Subsequently, a version was released that fixed the decryption fla Akira has listed 1,561 victims since April 2023.
How Akira is documented to operate
Valid Accounts
T1078
Stealth
Persistence
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access, network devices, and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network.
Mitigations:
Application Developer Guidance, User Training, Password Policies, User Account Management, Privileged Account Management, Multi-factor Authentication
MITRE ATT&CK reference →
External Remote Services
T1133
Persistence
Initial Access
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network. Remote services such as VPNs, Citrix, and other access mechanisms allow users to connect to internal enterprise network resources from external locations. There are often remote service gateways that manage connections and credential authentication for these services. Services such as Windows Remote Management and VNC can also be used externally. Access to Valid Accounts to use the service is often a requirement, which could be obtained through credential pharming or by obtaining the credentials from users after compromising the enterprise network.
Mitigations:
Limit Access to Resource Over Network, Restrict Web-Based Content, Network Segmentation, Multi-factor Authentication, Disable or Remove Feature or Program
MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Exploit Public-Facing Application
T1190
Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network. The weakness in the system can be a software bug, a temporary glitch, or a misconfiguration. Exploited applications are often websites/web servers, but can also include databases (like SQL), standard services (like SMB or SSH), network device administration and management protocols (like SNMP and Smart Install), and any other system with Internet-accessible open sockets. On ESXi infrastructure, adversaries may exploit exposed OpenSLP services; they may alternatively exploit exposed VMware vCenter servers.
Mitigations:
Vulnerability Scanning, Limit Access to Resource Over Network, Filter Network Traffic, Network Segmentation, Privileged Account Management, Application Isolation and Sandboxing
MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Windows Management Instrumentation
T1047
Execution
Adversaries may abuse Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to execute malicious commands and payloads. WMI is designed for programmers and is the infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows systems. WMI is an administration feature that provides a uniform environment to access Windows system components. The WMI service enables both local and remote access, though the latter is facilitated by Remote Services such as Distributed Component Object Model and Windows Remote Management. Remote WMI over DCOM operates using port 135, whereas WMI over WinRM operates over port 5985 when using HTTP and 5986 for HTTPS.
Mitigations:
Execution Prevention, Behavior Prevention on Endpoint, User Account Management, Privileged Account Management
MITRE ATT&CK reference →
Command and Scripting Interpreter
T1059
Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries. These interfaces and languages provide ways of interacting with computer systems and are a common feature across many different platforms. Most systems come with some built-in command-line interface and scripting capabilities, for example, macOS and Linux distributions include some flavor of Unix Shell while Windows installations include the Windows Command Shell and PowerShell. There are also cross-platform interpreters such as Python, as well as those commonly associated with client applications such as JavaScript and Visual Basic.
Mitigations:
Restrict Web-Based Content, Limit Software Installation, Execution Prevention, Code Signing, Behavior Prevention on Endpoint, Privileged Account Management
MITRE ATT&CK reference →
MITRE ATT&CK techniques attributed to Akira across its recorded activity, not a finding about how Davis & Ferber was reached.
Vulnerabilities Akira is recorded exploiting
6 of these 6 are in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, 6 of them recorded by CISA as used in ransomware campaigns. CVEs attributed to Akira across its reported activity. There is no indication that any of these was involved in the Davis & Ferber incident — the source data does not record an entry point.
