FireEye tracks TEMP.MixMaster incidents where TrickBot infections preceded hands-on Ryuk ransomware deployment, with operators using EMPIRE, RDP, PsExec, batch scripts, and domain-controller access to spread encryption across victim networks. The investigated activity affected organizations primarily in the United States across sectors such as government, financial services, manufacturing, service providers, and high tech. Although Ryuk had been publicly linked to North Korea because of code similarities with Hermes, FireEye states it found no evidence in its investigations that North Korea was behind the Ryuk attacks. The excerpt instead frames the activity as financially motivated crimeware operations using TrickBot footholds, stolen credentials, reconnaissance, lateral movement, and targeted ransomware deployment to maximize disruption and ransom pressure.