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Ransomware affiliates are operators who use ransomware maintained by another criminal group to attack victims. In a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) arrangement, the group may supply or maintain the ransomware and related infrastructure, while affiliates carry out deployments. The arrangement varies: there is no single organization chart or standard payment split. For victims, the consequences can include locked files and systems, interrupted services, financial and reputational harm, and threats to publish stolen data.
What is a ransomware affiliate?
A ransomware affiliate is an operator participating in a criminal arrangement in which a group makes ransomware available for use against victims. The label describes a role, not necessarily a permanent job title or a consistent division of labor. One group may have administrators who maintain the malware and infrastructure and affiliates who deploy it; the details differ among operations.
This division can make ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) resemble a service ecosystem: the people maintaining the tools and the people using them may be distinct, even though their activity serves the same criminal operation. The term does not mean the service is legitimate, nor does it tell a victim exactly who accessed a particular network. Attribution requires evidence about the incident and should not be inferred merely from the ransomware name or payment demand.
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How the RaaS arrangement can work
Tools and infrastructure are made available
In the broad model, a group maintains ransomware functionality and makes it available to operators called affiliates. The affiliate uses that capability in an attack; the group and affiliate may then have a financial arrangement connected to access, use, or proceeds. This is a useful way to understand how a campaign can involve different roles, but it does not establish that every group supplies the same tools, support, or infrastructure.
Payment terms also vary. CISA’s LockBit advisory lists possible upfront payments, subscriptions, profit shares, or combinations of those approaches. It does not establish a representative commission percentage across ransomware groups, so a claimed universal affiliate cut would be misleading. A victim should not assume that the person negotiating a ransom is the developer, administrator, or sole beneficiary.
Phobos illustrates a distinct alleged arrangement
The U.S. Department of Justice’s February 10, 2025 announcement, updated February 20, describes a specific alleged Phobos process. According to the release, after an attack succeeded, affiliates paid Phobos administrators a fee to obtain a decryption key. Each deployment had a unique identifier matched to a key, and each affiliate was directed to pay to a wallet unique to that affiliate. These details belong to the Phobos case; they should not be generalized to other groups or treated as a standard RaaS payment system. The DOJ announcement concerns allegations in a criminal case, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Read the DOJ’s Phobos announcement.
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What happens during a ransomware attack?
A ransomware incident may combine network intrusion, copying or theft of files, encryption that blocks access, and a demand for payment. Not every incident includes all of these elements, and the sequence and tactics vary. CISA’s #StopRansomware Guide describes incidents involving both encryption and data theft, as well as data extortion without encryption.
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Encryption can interrupt access
Encryption can make files or systems unavailable to the organization that relies on them. The practical impact depends on what is affected: an organization may lose access to information needed for routine work or for delivering essential services. CISA and its partners warn that ransomware and associated data-breach incidents can leave organizations unable to access data needed to operate and provide mission-critical services. That is why a ransom demand is not only an IT problem; it can become an operational problem for the organization and the people who depend on it.
Data theft can add a second form of pressure
In double extortion, attackers use both disruption and the threat of disclosure: they may encrypt data and threaten to publish information they have stolen. The threat may be directed at the victim itself or framed around exposure to customers, clients, or other stakeholders. The risk therefore does not disappear simply because an organization can restore files, nor does the presence of an extortion demand prove that every claimed file was taken or will be published.
LockBit provides a group-specific example. The CISA-led advisory says LockBit affiliates employed double extortion from 2021, encrypting victim data and exfiltrating it while threatening to post it on leak sites. That is reported LockBit activity, not a universal sequence for ransomware affiliates.
The DOJ’s Phobos account alleges a different set of actions in that case: theft and encryption, ransom negotiation, threats to expose files, and publication on a darknet site for victims who did not pay. Those are allegations described by the DOJ, not proof that every Phobos incident—or every ransomware incident—followed the same path.
How victims are affected
Access loss can become a service interruption
When organizations cannot reach the data or systems needed for normal work, they may be unable to operate as usual. The consequences depend on the victim and the resources affected; the same kind of intrusion can have very different effects on a small business, a school, a health care provider, or a public service. CISA’s warning about mission-critical services captures the broader risk: disruption may affect not just files but the organization’s ability to deliver what people rely on.
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Recovery and disclosure carry separate costs
Victims may face recovery expenses and other financial costs, along with reputational consequences. Stolen data introduces additional pressure and potential harm, even when encryption is not the only or main tactic. Recovery can also extend the disruption beyond the moment an attacker first blocks access. The FBI’s ransomware guidance addresses prevention and reporting, while CISA’s guide describes the operational and recovery impacts of ransomware incidents.
The Phobos case offers a concrete example of the range of organizations named as alleged victims: the DOJ announcement refers to a children’s hospital, health care providers, and educational institutions. Those examples show why a ransomware incident can matter beyond the organization’s own systems, but they do not mean all victims face identical consequences.
Case statistics need their boundaries
The DOJ said the Phobos case involved allegations that more than 1,000 public and private entities were victimized and that over $16 million in ransom payments were received. These are figures attributed to allegations in that case, not final judicial findings and not totals for the ransomware ecosystem as a whole. The distinction matters: a case figure cannot serve as a reliable estimate of all ransomware victims or payments.
A separate, group-specific figure appears in the FBI, CISA, and ASD’s ACSC advisory on Play ransomware. Its June 4, 2025 update says approximately 900 entities had been affected by Play actors as of May 2025. This is an agency-awareness figure for that group, not a comprehensive count of all victims. See the Play ransomware advisory.
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The FBI recommends maintaining current operating systems and applications, backing up data regularly, verifying that backups completed, disconnecting backups from the computers and networks they protect, and preparing a continuity plan. These practices address different failure points: updates help keep software current, a backup provides another copy of data, checking completion catches failed jobs, disconnection helps separate the backup from the systems it protects, and continuity planning prepares an organization for disruption. None of them guarantees that an attack will not occur.
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Make backups usable, not merely scheduled
A backup plan should include regular backups and checks that the jobs actually completed. An offline backup drive can be one physical option, but a drive left connected to the computer or network it is meant to protect is not disconnected. A single drive alone is not a complete security or recovery plan; the FBI’s guidance is to disconnect backups from protected computers and networks, not to rely on one specific device.
Plan for operating during disruption
A continuity plan addresses how an organization will manage when normal access to data or systems is interrupted. The FBI includes continuity planning among its ransomware-prevention recommendations. Its value is distinct from restoring files: it helps an organization think through continued operations while recovery is underway, rather than assuming that a backup will prevent all interruption.
If you are a ransomware victim
The FBI recommends that victims contact their local FBI field office or report the incident to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Its guidance also states that the FBI does not support paying a ransom and warns that payment does not ensure data recovery. The FBI’s exact caution is: “Paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back.” Consult the FBI’s ransomware guidance.
That statement is specifically the FBI’s position and a warning about uncertainty, not a claim that every victim will have the same outcome or that payment guarantees a particular legal result. The relevant practical point is that a payment is not a dependable recovery mechanism. Reporting gives law enforcement a way to receive information about the incident, while a pre-existing backup and continuity plan are the measures the FBI recommends for preparation.
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