Red Cloud

Red Cloud is a prominent Telegram-based cybercriminal channel and "log cloud" dedicated to distributing and monetizing compromised digital identities. Operating within the illicit data economy, Red Cloud serves as a centralized hub where threat actors can acquire fresh data harvested by information-stealing malware (infostealers).

According to recent cyber threat intelligence, Red Cloud has published over 5.3 million compromised accounts. Despite facing continuous blocking and takedown attempts, the group maintains a strong reputation among cybercriminals for consistently providing unique, high-quality information that fuels downstream attacks, including account takeovers and corporate network breaches.

How Red Cloud Operates in the Cybercrime Ecosystem

Unlike traditional dark web forums, Red Cloud uses Telegram to streamline the delivery of stolen data. Its core operational tactics include:

• Subscription-Based Access: Operators monetize their infrastructure by offering premium subscription models that grant paying cybercriminals access to daily updates of fresh, highly lucrative stealer logs.

• Free Bot Distribution: To attract new members and expand its subscriber base, Red Cloud frequently shares multiple free Telegram bots. These tools help threat actors automate the parsing, sorting, and exploitation of massive credential dumps.

• Resilience and Persistence: Despite being continuously blocked by platform moderators, the operators quickly establish new channels or mirrors, ensuring uninterrupted service for their buyers.

The Threat of Compromised Data

The stealer logs distributed through Red Cloud represent a severe and immediate threat to enterprise security. The compromised data typically trafficked includes:

• Active Session Tokens: Browser cookies and Primary Refresh Tokens (PRTs) that allow attackers to hijack live cloud sessions and bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

• Corporate Credentials: Usernames and passwords for virtual private networks (VPNs), cloud environments, and Single Sign-On (SSO) portals.

• System Fingerprints: Device metadata, IP addresses, and hardware details used to craft convincing impersonation attacks and evade fraud detection systems.

Frequently Asked Questions About Red Cloud

What is a Telegram log cloud?

A Telegram log cloud is a dedicated channel or group on the Telegram messaging app used by cybercriminals to aggregate, share, and monetize large datasets (logs) harvested by infostealer malware. These channels offer speed, scale, and ease of use compared to navigating encrypted dark web forums.

Why is Red Cloud dangerous to organizations?

Red Cloud is dangerous because it supplies Initial Access Brokers (IABs) and ransomware affiliates with the turnkey materials needed to breach corporate networks. By providing active session tokens and verified corporate credentials, the channel allows attackers to log in as legitimate users and bypass perimeter security entirely.

What makes Red Cloud unique among other log channels?

Red Cloud is notable for its persistence and the exclusivity of its data. Despite frequent bans and blocks, it has successfully published over 5.3 million compromised accounts and built a reputation for providing unique information that is hard to find elsewhere on cybercrime channels.

How ThreatNG Neutralizes Red Cloud Log Trafficking Threats

When cybercriminal syndicates use Telegram log clouds like Red Cloud to distribute massive, curated volumes of credentials and session tokens stolen by infostealers, defending the network perimeter becomes an increasingly challenging task. Standard internal security tools are frequently blind to these external data leaks. ThreatNG provides a comprehensive, outside-in defense framework designed to detect, contextualize, and neutralize compromised digital identities circulating on platforms like Red Cloud before adversaries can exploit them.

Continuous Monitoring and External Discovery

ThreatNG operates as an invisible, frictionless engine that secures the external attack surface through automated, connectorless discovery.

• Connectorless Visibility: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery without requiring any internal agents or API integrations.

• Shadow IT and BYOD Detection: It continuously maps the digital footprint to uncover unknown subdomains, rogue cloud accounts, and unmanaged devices.

• Example in Action: If a remote employee uses a personal, unmanaged laptop to access corporate networks and unknowingly downloads an infostealer payload distributed by a Red Cloud affiliate, internal tools cannot see the infection. ThreatNG’s continuous external discovery acts as a constant perimeter patrol, identifying the external, shadow IT assets that an attacker might target once they acquire the employee's compromised credentials from a Red Cloud data dump.

In-Depth Investigation Modules

ThreatNG employs highly granular investigation modules to scrutinize specific exposure vectors across an organization's digital footprint.

• Subdomain Intelligence: ThreatNG analyzes subdomains for takeover susceptibility by performing DNS enumeration to identify CNAME records pointing to inactive third-party services such as AWS or Heroku. It also identifies exposed remote access services, including RDP, SSH, and VNC.

• Sensitive Code Exposure: This module discovers public code repositories and identifies leaked secrets, including AWS Access Key IDs, Stripe API keys, Slack Webhooks, and database configuration files.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: ThreatNG identifies sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, as well as exposed open cloud buckets across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

• Example in Action: If a threat actor purchases a Red Cloud log containing a developer's access tokens, the Sensitive Code Exposure module highlights which GitHub repositories or cloud storage buckets (e.g., Amazon S3) are publicly exposed and vulnerable to that compromised identity. Simultaneously, the Subdomain Intelligence module ensures the security team already knows exactly which subdomains have exposed remote access ports that the attacker will inevitably try to breach.

Precision External Assessment

ThreatNG translates chaotic technical findings into structured, prioritized security ratings measured on an A-F scale to facilitate executive decision-making.

• Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility (A-F): This rating is calculated by cross-referencing compromised credentials from DarCache Rupture with ransomware events and subdomain intelligence, including exposed ports and vulnerabilities.

• Non-Human Identity (NHI) Exposure (A-F): This metric quantifies vulnerability to threats posed by high-privilege machine identities, such as leaked API keys and system credentials, which are frequently found in infostealer logs.

• Data Leak Susceptibility (A-F): This grade evaluates exposure by uncovering open cloud buckets, compromised credentials, and known vulnerabilities.

• Example in Action: If an organization's Primary Refresh Tokens (PRTs) are dumped on Red Cloud, their Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility rating may immediately drop to an "F". By reviewing the assessment, executives can clearly see that the failing grade is directly tied to an active credential leak combined with an exposed network port, prompting an immediate operational mandate for remediation.

Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)

To combat centralized log distribution hubs, ThreatNG relies on its Data Aggregation Reconnaissance Cache (DarCache) to extract actionable intelligence directly from the criminal underground.

• DarCache Infostealer: This repository continuously archives, normalizes, and sanitizes the first level of the dark web and Telegram log clouds. It specifically searches for compromised Primary Refresh Tokens (PRTs) and session cookies.

• Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): This module tracks all organizational email and password combinations associated with known data breaches.

• Example in Action: When operators upload a massive, curated infostealer log to Red Cloud, DarCache instantly processes the data dump. Security teams can search their domain to see if any of their employees' session tokens or passwords are included in the leak, empowering them to isolate devices and invalidate sessions before extortion occurs.

Actionable Reporting and Attack Path Mapping

ThreatNG provides strategic clarity through contextual reporting and the DarChain modeling system.

• Comprehensive Reporting: The platform delivers Executive, Technical, and Prioritized reports, mapping external GRC assessments directly to regulatory frameworks like PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST CSF, and ISO 27001.

• DarChain (External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence): DarChain transforms raw external data into a structured threat model. It maps out the precise exploit chain an adversary follows from initial reconnaissance to the compromise of critical assets.

• Example in Action: Instead of handing an analyst a flat list of 5,000 unknown assets and a separate alert about a stolen Red Cloud password, DarChain connects the dots. It visually maps how a specific stolen credential can be used to bypass authentication on a vulnerable, exposed API, showing the exact choke point where defenders can break the kill chain.

Cooperation with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG serves as the definitive external intelligence layer, seamlessly enhancing the efficacy of complementary security solutions by providing critical "outside-in" context.

• Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM): CAASM platforms act as internal inventory managers, perfect for governing known assets, but they are blind to the external perimeter and the dark web. ThreatNG acts as the external scout, feeding the CAASM system newly discovered shadow IT, unmanaged cloud buckets, and actively traded Red Cloud credentials so they can be brought under internal management.

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): ThreatNG acts as an early warning system for IAM platforms. When ThreatNG discovers a compromised Primary Refresh Token (PRT) or active session cookie circulating on Red Cloud, it feeds this intelligence to the IAM solution, which immediately executes a forced password reset and invalidates all active cloud sessions for the affected user.

• Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS): BAS platforms simulate sophisticated attacks to validate defenses on known infrastructure. ThreatNG expands the scope of these simulations by feeding the BAS engine a dynamic list of exposed APIs, forgotten dev environments, and leaked Red Cloud credentials, ensuring the platform tests the exact external side doors that real attackers target.

• Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ): CRQ solutions calculate financial risk using statistical probability and industry baselines. ThreatNG replaces statistical guesses with real-time behavioral facts, feeding the CRQ model actual indicators of compromise—such as active Red Cloud data leaks and brand impersonations—to dynamically adjust the financial risk likelihood based on the organization's real-world digital behavior.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Legal-Grade Attribution?

Legal-Grade Attribution is the capability delivered by ThreatNG's proprietary Context Engine, which uses multi-source data fusion to iteratively correlate external technical security findings with decisive legal, financial, and operational context. This eliminates guesswork and proves definitively that a leaked asset or stolen credential belongs to your organization.

What is the Contextual Certainty Deficit?

The Contextual Certainty Deficit is the gap between having too many disconnected security alerts and knowing the actual, validated risk to the business. ThreatNG resolves this by providing an automated intelligence engine that establishes ownership of an exposed asset and maps the specific attack path, eliminating wasted operational hours spent investigating false positives.

How does ThreatNG prevent MFA bypass attacks?

Threat actors use infostealers to harvest Primary Refresh Tokens (PRTs) and session cookies, which act as a "Golden Ticket" allowing them to bypass Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) entirely. ThreatNG prevents this by using its DarCache Infostealer module to continuously monitor dark web log clouds like Red Cloud, alerting security teams to compromised session cookies so they can force global password resets and invalidate active sessions before the tokens are weaponized.